Oranges
by pbow
Summary: It all starts with six oranges and a game of Boomba. This is my take on the episode "iParty With Victorious" and the aftermath of Sam's little game with Freddie. Rated T for some adult situations. Final Chapter Posted.
1. Boomba

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the crossover episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters so they're seventeen years old, juniors in high school, to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to how they'd normally act in the show.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 1

Boomba

Xxxxxx

"It's a game my mom taught me," Samantha 'Sam' Puckett said as she grabbed six oranges out of the Shay's refrigerator and walked back to the living room, handing three of the round ripe fruit to Fredward 'Freddie' Benson along the way. Sam took up a position at the far end of the couch near the front door of the Shay apartment, a good ten feet away from the young man.

"And what's this game called again?" Freddie asked as he examined one of the large oranges.

"It's called 'Boomba'," the blond girl casually said as she nonchalantly tossed one of the oranges in the air and caught it.

"Oh dear," Carly Shay groaned to herself from the island counter where she was working on the computer. _"This_ isn't gonna to be good." She knew that when Sam was using food for anything other than eating, it wouldn't turn out well for someone; Usually Freddie. But Carly always tried to keep from getting caught in the crossfire so she turned back to the computer.

"And how's it played?" Freddie curiously asked, not having heard Carly's warning and unsure if he even wanted to play a game with the blond hellion in the first place. Any interaction with Sam normally ended in pain, for him at least.

"Well, you face away from your opponent and..." Sam slowly said as she turned toward the front door. She waited for a few seconds for Freddie to follow her instructions before she swiftly about-faced and heaved the orange in her right hand at him as hard as she could, striking Freddie dead center in the back.

Freddie let out a loud, agonizing grunt of pain as he winced and collapsed to the floor. He dropped his three oranges and disparately tried to grasp the injured area.

"Boomba," Samantha Puckett triumphantly gloated, raising both orange-holding fists in the air. She casually hopped up onto the couch and declared, "I win."

"Sam," Carly huffed out in bored warning like she usually did when her best female friend abused their best male friend. She'd been on the computer typing out her hopefully future married name, Carly Carson, in different fonts and Sam's abusive behavior was distracting Carly from her whimsy.

"Oh God," Freddie groaned as he writhed around on the floor in anguish, the two girls paying little attention to his agony, like always.

Of course if they _had_ been paying attention to the young man who had been a constant in their lives for the last six or seven year they would've noticed that in his painful writhing...

Freddie wasn't moving his legs at all.

The brown-haired teen let out a loud moan that finally drew the attention of Sam. She kicked Freddie's leg and angrily growled at him, "Get up you Nub! I didn't hurt you _that_ bad!"

Now normally when Sam would kick or punch Freddie it would illicit a response like a sharp wince or loud yelp of pain from him.

But not this time.

Freddie completely ignored her and didn't even seem to notice her sneaker striking his leg. This upset Sam even more. She derived immense pleasure from his pained reactions. If Freddie _didn't_ react, she'd never get her rush of blissful satisfaction.

So...

"Get up, Fredweird," Sam commandingly yelled as she kicked him again and again in the leg to get the desired reaction. "I wanna play some more."

Carly was brought out of her reverie over her possible future name by Sam's extremely loud, forceful antics. The brunette girl was horrified when she turned and saw Sam repeatedly kicking Freddie. "_Sam!_ _STOP!" _Carly screeched and swiftly jumped from her stool, dashed over and pushed the blond away from the prone young man. "Can't you see he's hurt?" Carly plopped down on the floor and tried to cradle her male friend in her arms.

"That's the whole idea of the game," Sam laughed like it was a given.

"I can't... feel my... legs," Freddie grunted out between painfully panted breathes.

"Oh God," Carly anxiously squeaked and gently laid Freddie back on the floor. She warned him, "Don't move, Freddie. If you can't feel your legs you may have injure your spine."

Just then the front door flew open and Freddie's mother, Mrs. Marissa Benson, came rushing in. She angrily begged, "What's going on over here? I could hear you yelling clear across the hall." She saw her son lying face down on the floor and screamed, "Freddie!" and ran over to him, her motherly over-protectiveness kicking in.

"Don't touch him," Carly warned as she leaned over the prone boy and held Mrs. Benson at bay to keep the woman from moving her son. "Sam hit him with an orange in the back and he just said he can't feel his legs." She held out her PearPhone for the woman to see and added, "I was just about to call an ambulance."

"Thank you for telling me, that's the correct procedure," Marissa said as she snatched the phone from Carly's hand, her nurse's training kicking in. "I'll make the call, Carlotta. It would help a lot if you could go over to my apartment and bring back the medical kit near the front door?"

"The big one?" Carly asked as she stood up and swiftly rushed toward the hallway.

"That's the one," Mrs. Benson hollered over her shoulder as she dialed the three digit emergency telephone number. She carefully lifted the back of Freddie's shirt and gingerly felt around his spine for any apparent damage. She immediately noticed the round, angry red spot forming on his back.

"What's the big deal?" Sam naively asked with a chuckle. "Fred-dork is always getting hurt whenever we play around but he always bounces back."

Marissa held out one finger telling Sam to hold on for a minute while she quietly spoke into the phone. After she hung up the call, she turned on the blond girl and angrily growled, "The big deal, _Samantha_," the blond girl's name forcefully coming out dripping with spite and venom, "is that this injury is _far_ worse than any of the many little cuts and bruises you've inflicted on my Freddie in the past."

"Yeah but..." Sam got out before she was interrupted as her brunette friend walked back into the room, straining with the heavy weight of the huge three foot tall by two foot wide, red emergency box.

"I got it," Carly called out, interrupting the conversation/debate.

"Good, Carly," Mrs. Benson said as she cautiously removed Freddie's left shoe and sock. "In the upper left hand corner of the box is a single, brown pill container. Get it out."

Carly set the big box down on the floor, unlatched the front cover and swung open the case. She quickly scanned the upper left quadrant of the medical kit and found the appropriate container. Noticing that it contains some large white pills, she held it out to Marissa and said, "Here you go. I'll get some water to wash it down."

Marissa took the vial from Carly and and removed one of the pills while the young girl rushed to the kitchen. Carly rummaged around in a cabinet for a few seconds before she found the sports bottle with a solid folding straw in the lid that she was looking for and filled the container at the sink. Then she rushed back over to the two Bensons.

"I would've preferred bottled water," Mrs. Benson grumbled low to herself as she administered the pill to her son and let him sip from the sports bottle to help swallow it, "but at least she thought enough to bring a sealable bottle with a straw so the water wouldn't spill all over the place and cause someone to slip and fall."

After she closed the water bottle and set it aside, Marissa softly whispered next to her son's ear, "Freddie dear, can you do mommy a big favor and wiggle your toes?" She leaned back to get a go look at Freddie's bare foot.

The foot and toes didn't move a centimeter.

Mrs. Marissa Benson let out a heavy sigh but put on a happy face as she leaned back in and lied, "Mommy's very proud of you son. You did good."

Two men suddenly appeared at the front door of the apartment. They were dressed in the normal, dark blue jumpsuit of an Emergency Medical Technician. Between them was a rolling gurney. One asked, "Did somebody call the Paramedics?"

"Thank God you're here," Mrs. Benson said as she again went into medical mode and stood up to greet them. "We have a seventeen year old male with possible spinal damage around the T7 or T8 vertebra and he can't move his lower extremities. I've administered one, fifteen milligram Oxycodine pill for the pain."

"Thank you, ma'am," the other EMT said as the first took the backboard off of the gurney and moved over to the injured person. "That was very precise. Are you in the medical profession?"

"Yes, I'm a nurse at the hospital and pull quite a few shifts in the E.R.," Marissa said as she relaxed just a little, knowing that her son was now in good hands since the EMTs in Seattle were some of the best in the country. She'd been surprisingly detached and professional after her initial shock, but now her anxiety kicked in as the seriousness of the situation and the person involved came crashing down around her. She plaintively wailed, "I'm also his _mother!"_

Both of the EMTs looked up at the highly distraught woman from their work on Freddie and hoped she wouldn't get in their way by trying to get to her son in her present condition. One of them caught Carly's eye and motioned for her to distract Marissa so they could do their job. (Sam seemed to be more concerned in idly juggling her oranges, trying to keep well out of the way and not caring one wit about what was happening to the dork, but she did occasionally glanced over at the boy. Of course everybody was too preoccupied with other things to notice Sam's eyes occasionally showing a bit of concern for her male friend.)

Carly went over to Marissa and tried to steer her to the couch as she said, "Mrs. Benson, why don't you take a seat over here while they examine Freddie."

Mrs. Benson and Carly had barely made it over to the tan sofa in the living room before two Police Officers appeared at the still open front door of the apartment.

Seeing them, Sam half jokingly-half nervously begged, "Did somebody call the cops?"

"I did..." Mrs. Benson practically growled in anger, suddenly snapping out of her grief. She pointed at the blond girl while addressing the Officers, "...and I want you to arrest her, Samantha Puckett."

"What's the charge?" one of the Officers asked as they fully entered the room.

"Assault and battery," Freddie's mother told them as she approached the two cops. "She viscously attacked my son and now he may be paralyzed from the waist down."

"Whoa-whoa-whoa," Sam shook her head and held out her hands in denial of the situation. "I only threw an orange at the Nub's back. How can he possibly be paralyze?"

One of the Officers had been bringing up some information on Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) during the exchange and showed it to his partner. The partner read the rap sheet for one 'Samantha Puckett" on the screen then let out a heavy sigh before turning to the blond girl. "You've been a very naughty girl for quite some time, Miss Puckett," he said as he took out his handcuffs. "I'm afraid we'll have to take you in and book you."

"But it was just a small prank," Sam yelled, trying to defend herself.

"A prank that ended with someone majorly injured," the Officer countered. "Considering that you just openly confessed to what you did, that amounts to assault with the willful intent to do bodily harm."

"Okay," Sam agreed, suddenly realizing that her prank _may_ have stepped over the line since the paramedics had to be called. She knelt down with her ankles crossed behind her back, laced her hands behind her head and calmly said, "But can ya put the cuffs on loose? Mamma don't like it when they dig into her wrists."


	2. Discovery and Discussion

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 2

Discovery and Discussion

Xxxxxx

Carly was at a loss as to what to do. Freddie was being carted out the door, strapped to a backboard on a gurney, possibly paralyzed from the waist down. Mrs. Benson was accompanying the paramedics to the hospital and Sam had already been arrested and hauled away for attacking Freddie. She didn't have anyone else to turn to since her brother, Spencer, was at a sock convention with his friend Socko until later in the afternoon. (He'd probably never be able to hear his cellphone ringing on the noisy convention room floor. He never remembered to put it in vibrate mode in those kinds of situations unless reminded to.)

Carly anxiously paced and wrung her hands, trying to come up with something to do when she felt the bracelet around her wrist and it hit her. She _did_ have someone else she could talk to. Her boyfriend Steven Carson was down in Los Angeles for the next month living with his father. She could call or text him on the phone.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Benson had taken Carly's PearPhone with her and had just left with the EMTs for the hospital, and Sam had already been hauled away by the Police so she couldn't borrow the blond girl's cellphone.

Carly looked around the now completely deserted apartment and felt so alone. She went over to the computer in hopes that she could maybe contact Steven via an e-mail account, except she didn't know if he had one. They'd always kept in contact via their cellphones either through calling or texting. (Carly's mind was in such a turmoil that she didn't even think about the regular cordless telephone sitting next to the couch or the extension up in the iCarly studio... or the extension in her bedroom or, well, you get the picture. Plus she couldn't remember his cellphone number. It was programed into her PearPhone so she'd never have to dial it when she did call or text him.)

Carly pulled up a search engine on the computer and typed in Steven Carson's name in hope that she could find an email addy. She was immediately drawn to a few of the hundreds of thousands of results that popped up, one in particular. According to the time and date stamp on the link it'd just been posted, submitted not more than ten minutes ago, on a web page called **The**. She clicked on the link and was taken to a picture of _her_ Steven with his arm draped around the shoulders of a beautiful girl who looked amazingly like that Mixed Martial Arts kick boxer, Shelby Marx, whom Carly had fought in a charity match just over a year ago.

But this picture said the girl's name was Tori Vega and the caption labeled them as boyfriend and girlfriend for just over three months. That was a lot longer than the amount of time she and Steven had been dating. Their hundred day anniversary wouldn't come up until he got back to Seattle next month.

Carly wanted to believe that Steven had broken up with this Tori chick before she got together with him but the picture was dated today, just minutes ago, so she knew the pic was real and Steven was seeing another girl at the same time they were dating. Carly wasn't going to try and delude herself that Steven wasn't a cheating, lying Skunk-Bag. The evidence was right in front of her.

Carly warily peered at the charm bracelet around her wrist that Steven had just given her that very morning before he left to fly down to Los Angeles. The jewelry suddenly felt vile and dirty hanging there on her arm. She flipped the clasp open and hurled the bracelet across the room in disgust.

Carly Shay was now truly alone. She had one friend who was in the hospital maybe unable to walk for the rest of his life and another friend who'd been arrested for the first friend's injury. Her boyfriend (make that her _ex-_boyfriend) was down in L.A. with his other girlfriend and she couldn't get in contact with her brother.

Carly disparately wanted to collapse on the couch and just bawl her eyes out from all the angst and drama running through her system but she knew that wouldn't solve anything. She needed to do something positive. Carly Shay needed to take action and get a firm grip of her life once more.

Carly knew Sam would be charged with a crime and wouldn't be able to see anyone, except her family lawyer, for at least a day and she couldn't get in touch with Steven to break up with him even if she wanted to until she got her PearPhone back.

And then there was Freddie.

Freddie would be lost and all alone in the hospital even if his mother stayed by his bedside. He needed a friendly face to help comfort him in his time of need.

As Carly shut off the computer and rose from the island counter, she thought back to the last time Freddie was in the hospital. It was a year and a half ago when he'd saved her life, pushing her out of the way of that damnedable taco truck and getting injured in the process.

"Oh my God," Carly gasped out loud as she made her way to the front door of the apartment, lugging the large medical kit back over to the Benson's apartment. "We were going to explore our feelings after he got out of the leg cast to see if he was more than foreign bacon to me. I never gave him an answer."

As Carly locked both front doors, it suddenly occurred to her that she _had_ given him an answer, of sorts. After Freddie had fully healed, everything had reverted back to the way it had been before the accident and she'd started dating other guys; other guys who treated her well for a few days before she discovered that they weren't compatible and broke it off... or they cheated on her. (Namely Steven Skunk-Bag!)

But Freddie had endured all of that and had actually comforted her after each and every one of the breakups, so he _must_ still love her.

But did she love him?

Luckily, the hospital was within easy walking distance so Carly had plenty of time to think things through as she pensively ambled along the sidewalk on autopilot, not paying any attention to the scant traffic and people around her.

Carly knew in her heart that she really enjoyed Freddie's company whenever they were together. He was smart, funny and, in her opinion, kinda cute. She let out a light laugh as she remembered calling his tech-talk 'cukey', cute and geeky, when he was in the leg cast. She still thought of him that way, that hadn't changed.

Then Carly suddenly remembered something her mother had told her just before she had passed away. Her mother, in one of those inciteful little mother/daughter moments that all women have, told a very young Carly that her perfect guy would first and foremost be her friend; that best friends make the ideal couples. A best male friend would already know all of her faults and weaknesses and accept them, just like she would know his and have already dealt with and accepted them.

Carly knew all of Freddie's little foibles just like he knew hers, and they were both okay with that. They never held those minor, inconsequential peccadilloes against the other.

Carly definitely couldn't say the same thing with any of the other guys she'd dated. As a matter of fact, those idiosyncrasies were the reason she'd broken up with a few of the guys in the first place. Certainly Steven's major fault of dating someone else behind her back wouldn't lead to them getting married. Even if he dumped that Tori chick, it was safe to say Steven didn't have any qualms about seeing other girls, even if he promised he would never _look_ at another one.(Which he _had_ sworn to that very morning.)

As the old saying goes, once a cheating Skunk-Bag, _always_ a cheating Skunk-Bag.

So yes, Freddie was prime boyfriend material, maybe even _husband_ material. She trusted him just that much.

With the happy thought of she and Freddie walking down the aisle someday, Carly entered the hospital and asked which room Fredward Benson was in. After checking the computer and giving her the room number, the receptionist informed Carly that they had just finished his examination and was moving him into his room, and he probably wouldn't be ready for visitors for another ten or fifteen minutes.

Carly was trying to decide what to do to pass the time when she heard someone calling her name.

"Carly! Carlotta," Mrs. Benson called out as she approached the brunette, waving something pear-shaped in her hand in the air. "I still have your phone."

"Thank you, Mrs. Benson," Carly said and smiled to her neighbor as she accepted her PearPhone. She anxiously asked, "How's Freddie?"

"He should be back on his feet in a day or two," Mrs. Benson sighed in relief. "The doctor thinks the contusion from the orange caused swelling in the tissue around the area. That pushed against the spinal cord nerves causing Freddie's _temporary_ paralysis."

"So Freddie will be able to walk down the aisle?" Carly squealed in delight until she realized exactly what she had said. Carly quickly corrected herself, hoping Mrs. Benson didn't catch her little slip of the tongue. "I mean he'll be able to walk and help out with the show?"

"Yes, Freddie will be okay after the swelling goes down," Marissa slyly said, having caught the verbal faux pas. She suspiciously asked, "Are you interested in my Freddie as a boyfriend, or more?"

"W-well," Carly nervously stuttered, anxiously rubbing the back of her neck and shying her head to the side to hide the blush that was rapidly spreading across her cheeks.

"I think that marvelous, Carlotta," Mrs. Benson cooed as she brought the girl into a warm motherly hug. "Freddie simply adores you and I think you'd be the perfect girl for him."

Mrs. Benson's demeanor suddenly did a one hundred-eighty degree turn as she suspiciously growled, "But I _am_ concerned about how many boyfriends you've had... and at such a young age. Why, you're only seventeen. Do you really love my Freddie?"

"I guess I have been a bit flighty," Carly nervously admitted. "Maybe I just needed to see what was out there, boyfriend-wise, before realizing what I had living right across the hall from me."

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it," Marissa ceded with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah," Carly lightly laughed. "Comparing my other former boyfriends to Freddie is a no-brainer."

"Speaking of boyfriends," Mrs. Benson suspiciously asked, eying the young girl. "Don't you have a current boyfriend right now? I think Freddie said his name is Steven-something-or-other."

"You mean my _ex,"_ Carly viciously snarled, thinking about the guy who was probably in the arms of Tori Vega right this very minute. "After everyone left the apartment, I found out that Steven Carson is dating another girl down in Hollywood." When she saw Mrs. Benson's questioning look, she clarified. "Steven's parents are divorced and he alternates his time living with them. His mother is here in Seattle and his dad lives in Hollywood."

"So Steven has... I mean _had_ a girlfriend in _both_ cities?" Marissa begged in astonishment. Her demeanor suddenly soured again as she angrily said, "That _cad._ What are you going to do about him? You obviously haven't had time to deal with that... that..."

"Skunk-Bag?" Carly offered to finish off the woman's thought.

"That's an interesting way of putting it," Mrs. Benson said with a smile, warming up to the term of non-endearment and the girl who may have coined it.

"To say the least," Carly growled before she remembered where they were and why she was here. "But I'll deal with Steven later. Right now I want to see Freddie and make sure he's okay."

"Well," Marissa said as she checked her wristwatch. "It'll be a few more minutes before Freddie is settled in his room. I was just heading home right now to lock the front door and return your phone before I came back for my shift. I was so concerned about Freddie I forgot."

"You don't need to worry," Carly assured the woman. "When I put the medical kit back in place, I locked your door before I walked over here."

"That was very thoughtful of you," Marissa cooed to the young girl, becoming more and more enamored with Carly as they talked. She knew Carly had a good head on her shoulders and that her son was deeply in love with her. It'd been a year and a half since the taco truck accident and she realized that Carly had matured quite a bit over that time. Maybe it _was_ time to cut the apron strings and see what happened.

Carly nonchalantly answered. "Well, I know you and Freddie like to keep your door lock and you didn't have time when you left to go down to the ambulance, so..."

"Nevertheless," Mrs. Benson said as she steered Carly toward the hospital cafeteria a short distance away from the lobby, "it was nice of you to remember in a time of crisis. Now, why don't we sit down in the cafeteria and chat for a few minutes before we go up and visit Freddie. I know I'm parched from all of the excitement. It'll be my treat."

"Thank you, Mrs. Benson," Carly chimed at the kindness of her next door neighbor. Normally, Freddie's mother barely tolerated her so this was definitely a change of pace. She considered that maybe Mrs. Benson was bi-polar or schizophrenic or something, as well as obsessive-compulsive. That would account for Mrs. Benson's mood swings toward her and everything else. "I guess I'm a little thirsty too."

"You can call me Marissa," Mrs. Benson kindly said as they moved over to the built-in wall coolers to grab something to drink. Mrs. Benson got a bottled water while Carly grabbed a Peppy Cola. They made their way through the checkout and took a seat at one of the tables in the spacious cafeteria.

"Now, dear," Mrs. Benson said while patting Carly's hand that was on the table, "could you tell me why you suddenly want to be Freddie's girlfriend, and maybe more?"

"Well, comparing my previous boyfriends to Freddie," Carly started out, "I remembered that he's always cared about me no matter what was going on, and he would always be there for me after I had broken up with another guy. That shows he's truly devoted and cares about me. Then there was something my mother told me before she passed away. She said that the best guy I could find to be my husband would probably be my best male friend; That we'd already know each other like the backs of our hands and that would mean that we've already dealt with any problems between us."

"That was very wise of your mother," Marissa said after wiping down the plastic bottle with a wet towelette from her purse and taking a sip of her water. "My husband and I knew each other before we started dating."

"Yeah," Carly wistfully laughed. "My mom and dad were good friends before they started going out, too. And now Freddie and I have known each other for six or seven years. I guess we were just meant to get together."

"But you broke up with Freddie shortly after the taco truck accident," Marissa said, thinking back on the incident.

"No," Carly corrected, "Freddie dumped me. He was worried that my feelings were only some kind of hero worship because he saved my life..." she lowered her head in shame and added, "...and I was _stupid_ enough to let him do it."

"Well, you're going to be together now," Marissa ceded with a motherly pat on her hand. "That's all that matters."

"Yes," Carly pensively intoned, deep in thought as she intently peered at the Peppy Cola bottle clutched tightly in her hands. "But I'll need to be careful of myself. Thinking about it, I've been kinda shallow at times, always chasing after the pretty guys or bad boys. I'd leave Freddie behind without a second thought but he was always there for me when the relationship crashed and burned; Even though he knew I was taking advantage of him."

"You were just going through a learning phase," Marissa wistfully said and patted Carly's hand again. She was extremely happy that Carly recognized that particular flaw in some girl's character and was anxious about keeping it in check. That proved she was maturing. "I've noticed that you've matured a lot since you first met Freddie and you're still learning. I must confess, _I _chased after a few bad boys myself when I was your age. I also think that's one of the reasons boys take up that image, so the ladies will pursue them."

"You think?" Carly giggled at that little bit of inciteful wisdom before sipping her soda.

"Yes," Marissa said with a resigned sigh. "But it's no different than a girl putting on heavy make-up or wearing sexy, revealing clothing to attract a boy. It's all just a part of the eternal dance of life to continue the species."

"Wow," Carly marveled, taken aback by that revelation as her hand automatically moved on its own to lightly caress her rouge covered cheek and lipstick painted lips. "I never really thought about it like that."

Marissa took a sip of her water then thoughtfully waxed aloud, "Make-up covers our flaws while sexy clothing accentuates our assets. They let us feel beautiful and self-confident. But a _real_ woman doesn't need any of that, she's confident in her own skin. A confidence woman can be very attractive to a man."

"Yeah, I guess," Carly said, thinking about her daily make-up routine; How she'd primp and preen in front of her video vanity mirror for twenty or thirty minutes in the morning before she'd be ready to go down for breakfast. She suddenly felt cheap and tawdry with all of the make-up she was wearing. Carly knew the clothes she wore were fairly modest, at least compared to some of the other girls in school, but she also knew that she was probably the unproclaimed queen of make-up at Ridgeway High School because of her extremely fair, almost albino-like complexion.

"Well," Marissa said as she got up from the table and straightened out her nurses uniform she'd changed into after arriving at the hospital, "I think we've spent enough time letting Fredward get settled in to his room. Let's go up now."

"Yes, let's," Carly wholeheartedly agreed with a bright smile. "But I need to stop in the restroom first."


	3. Planning

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious **and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 3

Planning

Xxxxxx

Mrs. Benson confidently strode into the hospital room while Carly quietly snuck in behind her, trying not to be seen and remained near the door.

"How's my little boy," Marissa cooed in a motherly fashion as she reached the bed and gently stroked Freddie's cheek.

"I'm fine, mom," the brown-haired boy whined and shied his head away from his mother's touch. "And I'm not a little boy anymore. I'm seventeen years old now."

"I know that Freddie," Mrs. Benson anxiously sighed from the chiding as she stepped back a pace and folded her hands in front of her. "It's just that I care so much about you and I just _hate_ seeing you get hurt at all."

"I understand," Freddie huffed, trying to control his distaste of his mother's over-protective harassment, but also trying to understand her point of view and keep things civil between them. "But the doctor told me I'll be fine once the swelling goes down. He gave me an anti-inflammatory pill and has me laying on a cold pad to help speed up the process."

"Is it doing its job, do I need to change the pad out with a fresh one?" 'Nurse' Benson anxiously asked as she got up next to the bed again and shoved her hands under Freddie's back to check the cold pad.

"Mom!" Freddie yelped at the invasion of his personal space and grabbed one of her wrists to remove it. "They just put a new pad down there a few minutes before you showed up. It's _fine_!"

"I was just checking," Mrs. Benson incredulously huffed.

"Well the nurse told me she'll be in every half hour to change out the cold pad with a fresh one," Freddie informed his mother, "so I'll be okay. I even felt the doctor when he stroked the sole of my foot before he left. He told me that meant the nerves were starting to transmit a signal to my lower body again, so the cold treatment and pill must be working."

"That's good to hear," Marissa said as she tidied his sheet and blanket and tucked him in. "Now, mommy has to go to work but I'll check up on you during my shift whenever I get the chance." She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Carly was in the room. When she saw the brunette over by the door, she turned to her son and said, "I believe one of your friends wants to keep you company for a while so I'll leave you two alone."

"Thanks mom, I'll see you later," Freddie said in relief, knowing that he'd at least get a little peace and quiet until she returned. Mrs. Benson left the room and he finally noticed Carly. Freddie joyfully greeted her, "Hey Carls."

"Hey Freddie," the petite brunette pensively squeaked as she slowly crept forward and finally took Mrs. Benson's spot next to the bed. "I'd ask you how you're doing but I heard what you said to your mom. I'm glad you're going to be okay."

"So am I," Freddie heavily sighed as he untucked the sheets around him and settled back in bed. "I was really scared there for a while when I couldn't move or feel my legs."

"I can imagine," Carly nervously tittered as she cautiously sat on the edge of the bed and laid a hand softly on his shoulder. "I pictured you laying in bed all day or confined to a wheelchair and I couldn't fathom you living like that. And then I suddenly couldn't imagine living my life without you if something like the taco truck had killed you."

Freddie could see the tears welling in Carly's eyes and knew she was speaking from the heart. He replied, "That's exactly why I pushed you outta the way of the truck. I've always felt that I couldn't live without you because I love you so much. If that taco truck had hit you..." He let the sentence dangle, unable to complete it as his eyes started to mist up from the thought of Carly laying there, dead in the street.

"I know, Freddie," Carly cooed as her hand went from his shoulder to his cheek. "And I thank you for your sacrifice. But I don't think I was wrong in loving you back then. It wasn't out of hero worship or gratitude. Well, maybe just a little. And that little doubt in my mind from what you said about foreign bacon allowed me to forget about all the wonderful things we've done together and all that we have in common."

"That little doubt," Freddie said as he gently took her hand from his cheek and laid it on his lap, but kept her hand in his. "Was that the reason you started dating other guys?"

"Yes... no... I don't know," Carly flustered as she stood up and started anxiously pacing next to the hospital bed and continued to say whatever came into her mind. "You were getting around so well on your crutches that everything sorta went back to normal and I tried to push the reason you were injured outta my mind. Then I automatically fell back into my regular dating habits."

Carly turned to Freddie with fire in her eyes as she firmly continued, "But I _do_ remember now how I felt back then and my love for you has only grown. You were there by my side whenever I broke up with the latest high school crush and talked me out of my depression, even though it was probably killing you seeing me with another guy. You've been completely devoted to me and I'd like to return that feeling now."

"But," Freddie sheepishly asked as he distracted himself from looking at her by picking at some imaginary threats on his blanket, "what about your current boyfriend, Steven."

"That Skunk-Bag!?" Carly viscously growled, her fists clinched and arms rigid by her sides. "I never want to see him again!"

"What happened?" Freddie begged, trying to sit up but a sudden spasm and aching pang in his back made him quickly lie back down. "Did you call him and he broke up with you over the phone or some such chizz?"

"I wasn't able to call him," Carly said as she began to pace again, in anger this time. "Your mom took my phone to call the paramedics and the cops so I tried to see if Steven had an e-mail address on-line. Instead, I found..."

"Wait!" Freddie interrupted her. "My mom called the cops? Why?" He had been so out of it from the pain and the pill and the paramedics doing their job that he hadn't seen what else had gone on in the apartment after Sam's little game of Boomba.

"She had Sam arrested," Carly answered, unsure just how she felt about that. Sam was her closest girl friend but she'd also injured Freddie with malice on her mind, without a second thought of the possible consequences.

"Arrested? For what?"

"Freddie, she almost _paralyzed_ you," Carly screamed in anguish. She quickly reined in her feeling at the whole situation and continued. "The police said they were gonna book her on assault with the intent to do bodily harm."

"I don't think..." Freddie automatically started to protest but stopped and thought about it for a second. He _could_ understand the charge leveled against Sam. After all, how many times had that blond-headed demon hit or slapped him, or shoved him into the lockers at school... or even simply tripped him to the floor. Sam definitely had some issues she needed to deal with. Maybe with a little (or a lot) counseling in juvie...

"So anyway, Steven...?" Freddie prodded Carly to get back to the story of why she didn't want to see her current boyfriend. They could talk about Sam's situation later.

"Oh yeah," Carly nodded in understanding. "I found a pic of Steven with this chick named Tori Vega, who happens to looks a _lot_ like Shelby Marx by the way. It'd just been posted on some site called **The Slap** and they looked all lovey-dovey sitting together. It definitely looks like Steven's been cheating on me with her."

"Awww, this really hasn't been your day, has it?" Freddie asked with his arms open wide, inviting her in to a compassionate hug.

"No, it hasn't," Carly squeaked as the events of the day finally caught up with her. He boyfriend (her _EX_ she reminded herself) was seeing another woman, her best girl friend had been arrested and her best male friend, the one she now realized was meant to be by her side for the rest of their lives, was in the hospital. Tears welled in Carly's eyes and she crawled into bed next to Freddie to accept the hug and cry on his shoulder.

They stayed like that for well over an hour, even when the on-duty nurse came in to change his cold pad. The nurse started to say something when she first came in but Freddie waved her off from pulling Carly out of the bed. The nurse almost immediately understood what was happening; That the patient was consoling the young lady even though he was the one who'd been injured. She let the young couple be, changing out the pad on the opposite side of the bed from the brunette.

Carly finally settle down enough to sit up a bit and look up at her friend. She said, "I guess I look a fright?"

"No, actually," Freddie said with that quirky little smirk of his as he ran his fingers through her hair to get it out of her eyes, "you look beautiful, like always; Even if you're not wearing any makeup."

"Oh, Freddie," Carly pshaw'ed with a shy blush, happy that he had noticed and felt that way after she'd removed her makeup in the bathroom on the way up to the room. His words made her feel beautiful. "You always say that."

"And I'm always right," Freddie shot back, his smirk growing just a little. "Now, we need to do something about Sam and Steven, and I have an idea for each situation."

"Really?" Carly perked up and asked, "What can we do about Sam?"

"Well, I don't think we can't do anything about the charge," Freddie reasoned as he pulled her back into an embrace and continued to absently stroke her long black hair, "especially since both you and I will probably be called in to testify if it goes to trial. But we _can_ suggest that Sam receive some kind of counseling for her aggressive behavior; Maybe even something on an outpatient basis in a foster home. I think a lot of her problems stem from living with her mother."

"Sam really does need to think before she acts," Carly said as she snuggled against Freddie's side. "And she doesn't receive any parental guidance from her mom. But if she's put into some kinda foster home then we may not see her ever again."

"Not unless Spencer is given custody," Freddie countered.

Carly sat up and gave Freddie her patented 'are you crazy' look as she begged, "Do you really think the court would think Spencer is a responsible adult? He's twenty-nine years old, dropped out of law school on his third day of classes and hasn't held a steady job in like, forever."

Freddie thought about it for a second and immediately realized Carly was right. "Yeah, it's a bad idea but it's worth a shot. Spencer's _your_ guardian and if we both suggested it to the judge, it'll show that there's no hard feelings about the attack and that we both truly care about Sam."

"Well, we can try," Carly ceded with a heavy sigh. "I can't think of anything else to do."

"Neither can I," Freddie nodded.

"So, what's your idea concerning Steven?" Carly questioned in curiosity as she laid back down beside him. It felt so natural, so right.

"Welllll," Freddie took a second to shift gears from the situation with Sam to the problem with Steven. "I'll need to do a little research on the web and maybe contact someone before my plan is really ready. Here's what we can do in the meantime."

Carly leaned in as Freddie whispered in her ear.

Shortly after the two teens discussed Freddie's plan that Carly immediately dubbed 'Operation Skunk-Bag', they received a visit from the police to collect a statement on the attack from each of them. But after hearing Freddie's testimony and the fact that _he_ wanted the charges reduced or possibly changed to a lesser count, the Police Officer said they could drop the charges and release Sam if he didn't wish to prosecute.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Benson was visiting Freddie at the time and put up a fuss. But after hearing both her son and Carly out, Marissa also agreed to drop the charges under the proviso that the blond hellion vowed to change her violent ways and seek some counseling. (The Officer also stated that he thought Samantha Puckett needed a major dose of anger management counseling.)

After the Police Officer left, Carly decided to run home for a few minutes to inform Spencer of what'd happened that afternoon, eat dinner and bring back a few things that Freddie could use to keep himself occupied over the next day or two while confined to a hospital bed.

Sam showed up at the Shay apartment shorty after Carly and Spencer sat down to eat (of course there was the obligatory joke about Sam showing up when _any_ food was on the table) and the blond told them about her brief stint in _jail_, and not juvenile hall. Since Sam was now seventeen, and with her prior record taken into consideration, the Seattle District Attorney's Office had decided to prosecute her as an adult.

Sam's brief time in an actual jail was eye-opening for the blond. She'd been put in a small holding cell with two long-time, female gang-bangers who had just been arrested for murdering a rival gang member. When they found out what Sam was in for, merely attacking someone with an orange, well lets just say that ridicule was heaped on the short blond girl and a few bruises were exchanged before the three were separated and Sam was swiftly moved to a different holding cell.

Being all alone with no one but hardened criminals around her in jail gave Sam time to think. After talking to her lawyer, she knew they would find her guilty of second-degree aggravated assault and then sentence her to _prison _for five to ten years. That meant she was facing some heavy duty time cooped up with gang-bangers and other woman who were nastier than she'd ever thought of being.

Fortunately, the Guards came and informed her that Freddie and his mother had dropped the charges and that she was free to go.

On the way out, Sam vowed to the Guards that they would never see her again. One of the guards made a joke about being **Scared Straight**, but it was lost on the girl since Sam had never seem or heard of the movie.

Both Spencer and Carly were relieved to hear Sam's story, and happy that she was now vowing to turn over a new leaf. (Relieved that Sam realized the full extent of her actions; that if she did anything from now on it would result in major prison time, and happy that she now saw the error of her ways and wanted to reform.)

After gathering a few things from the Benson apartment, (Freddie and Carly had long ago exchanged apartment keys, just in case) Spencer, Sam and Carly walked to the hospital to visit their friend.

Freddie became extremely nervous when Sam entered the room but she quickly put his mind at ease with a sincere apology and told him about her stint in jail, and how she was going to reform, especially toward him.

Freddie suspiciously accepted her apology and told Sam that he would gladly give up his portion of the Daka TechFoot settlement if she wanted to seek professional help in straightening out her attitude.

Sam laughed and thanked Freddie for the offer, but informed everyone that her mother was conveniently dating a teen psychologist right now, and that she just might be able to get some help for free.

Sam's new found attitude was immediately put to the test when Carly told her about what she'd discovered concerning her ex-boyfriend, Steven. The blond hellion immediately wanted to track down that Skunk-Bag and kill him.

Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed and Carly was able to convince Sam not to take drastic measures since _that _was what usually got her in trouble in the first place. Sam realized what she was doing, violently acting on impulse, and decided to walk off her anger around the room while counting to ten. (Multiple times!)

Freddie explained his plan for Steven to Spencer and Sam and that put the former(?) blond demon in a much better mood.

Since the hospital had free Wi-Fi, Carly had brought along Freddie's laptop computer. She showed everyone the picture of Tori Vega and Steven Carson sitting outside 'somewhere' (upon further digging they discovered that it was at some high school called Hollywood Arts) and they all agreed that that Tori chick looked amazingly like Shelby Marx, and that Steven and Tori were definitely boyfriend and girlfriend.

Freddie, being as computer savvy as he was, hacked a few websites and came up with more that he'd hoped for; The information making his plan all that more viable and devious. (Much to Sam's delight. She definitely still _loved_ devious despite her reformation.)

After a quick phone call, the teens went to work with the second part of the plan. Spencer took a picture of Freddie and Carly making out (using Sam's PearPhone) in the hospital bed. Carly had removed her shirt and lowered the straps of her bra off her shoulders before getting under the covers to make it appear as if she was naked while kissing him.

Sam sent the pic and a text message to Steven briefly explaining the 'Orange Incident' and telling him that Carly had fallen madly in love with Freddie who desperately needed her during his time of recovery, and that she was dumping him. (Being dumped by text is low. Being told that you've been dumped by a friend of your girlfriend via text was definitely hitting below the belt.)

Then they all shut down their phones so Steven couldn't call any of them.

Xxxxxx

The next afternoon, three people appeared at the Shay's apartment door, a tall slim brunette leading the way.

"What do you mean by calling my manager and telling him I have a twin sister!?" Shelby Marx yelled at the boy laying on the couch as she marched over to Freddie and glowered down at him in anger. (Freddie was doing much better and had been released from the hospital that morning, although he still needed to take it easy.)

"When Carly fought you in the Octagon that one time for charity, the biography in the program mentioned you were adopted," Freddie said as he gingerly sat up and turned the computer sitting on his lap around so she could see the screen, "and we think we've found your sister."

"Oh my God," Shelby marveled as she leaned in to get a better look at the picture on the computer screen. It was the shot of Tori Vega and Steven Carson sitting at an outdoor table. "She looks _exactly_ like me."

"Yes she does," Carly said, moving over to stand beside the mixed martial arts fighter. "And Freddie was able to... _obtain_ your birth and adoption records, don't ask how, and found out that you were born on the same day as that girl. He also dug up the records for a Victoria Valencia Vega," she said, pointing to the girl on the screen, "and they match your records. She's your _twin_ _sister."_

"Whoa," Shelby could only marvel as she picked up the laptop to get a better look. "Sooo..." she wasn't sure where to go with this new information about a twin sister.

"Yeah, sooo..." Carly echoed, not sure if she should lay out the plan to get back at Steven just yet. Both Tori Vega and Shelby Marx were now a vital part of the plan.

"Would you like to know a little more about Victoria?" Freddie asked the martial arts fighter just to break the awkward moment. "Or Tori, as she's normally called."

"That might be a good idea," Shelby nervously said, handing Freddie back his laptop and sitting down next to him while Carly sat down on the other side of Freddie.

"Well," Freddie said as he pulled up the birth certificate that he'd stored on the computer and showed it to Shelby, "you're actual full name is Shelby Selena Vega. David and Holly Vega, your _real_ parents, only planned on having two children. But since they already had one daughter when you and your sister were born, they decided to put one of you up for adoption. According to the adoption records and some other info I found, your father, I mean Mr. Marx, was a co-worker on the L.A.P.D. with David Vega and couldn't have any kids with his wife because of some kind of medical reason."

"I knew I was an only child," Shelby despondently moaned as she heavily leaned back on the couch next to Freddie as he paged through some more photos of Tori Vega that he had dug up on the web, "but I didn't know mom and dad couldn't have any other other children."

"Does it matter?" Carly asked as she snuggled up next to Freddie on the couch. "Freddie is an only child and he's okay with it. I'm sure you had a good childhood since you turned out so well."

"Yeah, I've had a good life so far," Shelby agreed. "I know my parent moved here to Seattle shortly after I was born... or after I was adopted... or whatever. Anyway, I got into martial arts early because dad was a cop and wanted me to be able to protect myself. I made a lot of good friends in my kick boxing classes and at school." She anxiously peered at the current photo of Tori on the screen and said, "I just wonder what my life would've been like if I had grown up with my real parents and sisters."

"The past is the past and you can't do anything to change it," Freddie sagely said as he took Carly's hand in his and gave it a little squeeze, hoping she would also get something from the message. "You can't do anything more than live in the present and look to the future."

Carly giggled at her new beau's philosophical message and queried, "Are you saying I should forget about all the times I rejected you and look to _our_ future?"

"Maaaaybe," Freddie said with a sly wink to the slightly shorter of the two brunettes flanking him.

"Awww," Shelby cutely cooed to the couple who looked like they were in love. "You two make a cute couple. But I didn't think you were together when we fought in The Octagon. Freddie kept making passes at me."

"Sorry about that," Freddie laughed, remembering how he'd acted around the MMA fighter before, during and after the charity bout. "But I was young and single at the time and you're so beautiful." He noticed Carly's eyebrows furl into a scowl and quickly added, "But not as beautiful as my _gorgeous_ girlfriend."

"Nice save," Carly harshly chided before she broke out in a smile. "And I forgive you because that was in the past." She leaned in and kissed Freddie's cheek before she turned to the other girl on the couch. "But we're getting off topic. We called to tell you about your sister, but _also_ to help us get a little revenge on someone else."

"Who would that be?" Shelby curiously queried.

"The guy in the pic," Freddie said, motioning to the laptop again after returning to the picture of Tori and her boyfriend. "Steven Carson."

"It looks like he's Tori's boyfriend? Why would you want to get revenge against him?"

"He is her boyfriend... And he was _my_ boyfriend, too," Carly growled. "At the _same_ time."

"Why that... that..." Shelby harshed at the picture, unable to find a proper foul name to call Steven.

"Skunk-Bag is the term we've been using," Freddie offered.

"Yeah," Shelby agreed as adamantly she slammed her right fist into the palm of her left hand, "that's a pretty good name for him. But I might also call him _'Pancake'_ because I'm gonna flatten him for cheating on my sister."

Freddie and Carly exchanged knowing smiles. The plan was coming together nicely.


	4. The Party

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 4

The Party

Xxxxxx

Since it was still early Friday afternoon and school was out for the weekend, and Shelby didn't have a fight scheduled for a couple of months, the seven people: Carly, Spencer, Sam, Freddie, Shelby, Rod and Juan (the last two being Shelby's manager and trainer, respectively) all hopped in Rod's private jet and flew down to Los Angeles. After renting two cars, they caravanned up to the Hollywood Hills to meet with Shelby's real family.

When Shelby knocked on the door, it was answered by a shorter brown haired girl clad in a martial arts gi. Trina Vega queerly peered at the MMA fighter and harshed, "Tori, why did you knock? Did you forget how to turn a doorknob or something? I thought you were up in your bedroom."

"I'm not Tori," Shelby said with a big, genial smile. "But I _would_ like to meet and talk with her."

"Stop fooling around, Tori," Trina angrily huffed as she stomped back over to her practice dummy and started to throw sloppy kicks and punches at it. "Just get in here and don't bother me while I finish up my workout."

As the seven people entered Juan immediately slipped into training mode and called out to Trina, "You'll get more power out of your kicks if you shorten your stance. Your feet are too wide apart so your center of balance is off."

"Ah-yeah," Trina chided in disbelief. "Like you would know anything about the finer points of martial arts."

"He would," Shelby said as she went over to the dummy and gently shoved Trina out of the way. "Juan is my kickboxing trainer and he's good at his job." The mixed martial arts champion then proceeded to throw powerful, precise kicks to the dummy, slowly working up the torso until the last kick struck the head and knocked the practice mannequin over on its side.

"Whoa Tori," Trina marveled as she went over and righted the dummy, struggling to move the heavy piece of equipment. "Since when can you do kicks like that?"

"I told you my name's _not_ Tori," Shelby said, having a little good clean fun with her older birth sibling. "But I _am_ your _sister."_

"What's going on down there?" came a voice from the second floor of the house that sounded _exactly_ like the voice that had just spoke downstairs. It was followed down the steps by a girl who looked exactly like Shelby Marx.

Tori Vega immediately noticed the five visitors near the front door and instantly recognized three of the strangers as she came down the stairs from her bedroom. She gleefully yelled, "Hey! You're iCarly! I love your show!" She quickly gave each of the iCarly gang a brief hug but mostly focused on the show's namesake.

"Yeah, and you love my boyfriend, too," the slightly shorter brunette angrily shot back.

"What?" Tori questioned, peering at Carly like she was crazy. "You mean my Steven?"

_"Your_ Steven, _my_ Steven," Carly said sadly. "He's been a busy boy. But that's only part of the reason why we came here. We also wanted to introduce you to someone you _might_ want to get to know a lot better."

Freddie, Spencer, Sam and Rod stepped aside to allow Tori to look over and see Juan, Shelby and Trina standing next to the practice dummy talking about different punches and kicks. Carly called out, "Shelby."

Shelby turned at Carly's call, saw Tori standing next to her, waved and said, "Hi, sis."

Sam and Freddie were able to catch Tori Vega as she collapsed in a dead faint.

Xxxxxx

"Soooo, let me get this straight," Trina tentatively said as they all sat on the two couches in the living room after reviving Tori and explaining everything to her. "I have _another_ younger sister?"

"Yes, we're twins," Shelby said, hoping this would be the last time they had to explain everything to Trina. They'd already told the girl that Shelby wasn't Tori, like, a dozen times already.

"My God," Trina over emoted in total exasperation as she got off the couch and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. "My life keeps getting worse and _worse."_

"Trina!" Tori called after her older sister. She turned to the other people in the room and said, "I apologize for my sister. She's..."

"A self-centered, egotistical bitch?" Sam smugly suggested.

"Sam," Carly chided her long time friend for the caustic remark.

"What?" Sam begged somewhat defensively. "Mamma just tells it like it is."

"Yes, Trina is all that, and more," Tori agreed with a heavy sigh, knowing just about everyone saw her sister in that same light. "But we don't talk about it out loud. We just generally ignore her."

"Yeah? Well mamma can take her down a notch or two if you want," Sam said as she quickly retrieved her butter sock from her backpack and casually swung it in front of her like a pair of nunchakus. "If you know what I mean."

"Is that a butter sock?" Juan questioned the blond-headed girl in what sounded like admiration. "I haven't seen one of those since my gang-banging days back in East L.A."

"Really?" Sam perked up at that. She got up, walked over to Juan and said, "Maybe you'd like to teach me some of the different attacks you guys used to use."

"I'd be happy to show you, chicka," Juan smiled brightly as he got up and escorted Sam outside onto the back patio beyond the kitchen doors, his arm snaking around her waist.

Carly leaned over to Shelby and begged, "Does Juan know Sam is _our_ age?" She received a shrug of the shoulders from the fighter.

Shelby's manager, Rod, stood up and said, "Now that all the drama is over, I need to network with a few people here in L.A. so I'll let you all visit for a while." He started moving to the front door and added over his shoulder, "Just give me a call if something comes up. Otherwise I'll meet you all back here in a few hours and I can find you all a hotel to stay at."

"Hang on," Spencer said as he got up from the sofa and moved over to meet Rod at the door. "Are you gonna be anywhere near an art gallery or two?"

"As a matter of fact," Rod said as he started to open the door and held it slightly ajar, "I'm going to Beverly Hills to meet a few people and there _are_ a few galleries down the street. Can I give you a ride?"

After they departed, that just left Carly, Freddie, Tori and Shelby sitting on the couch.

"Okay," Tori said, trying to take control over the mixed up situation when she remembered the other reason the Seattle-ites were there. "So, what are we going to do about Steven? You said you had a plan?"

"We thought we could play a game of 'Switcheroo' with Steven," Carly slyly said with a wicked growing smile. "You wouldn't happen to know where he'll be tonight, would you?"

"As a matter of fact," Tori said, her smile also growing as she immediately caught on to the plan. "He's supposed to pick me up in an hour for a party at Keenan Thompson's house where we'll meet up with some of my friends from school."

"Ooooo, that's perfect," Shelby cheered, already knowing what Carly had in mind since they'd talked about it on the flight down.

Xxxxxx

Tori Vega really hated her life right now. Being in the arms of that... that Skunk-Bag Steven was making her sick to her stomach, but she had to bear the brunt of fawning over him during the party to make their plan a success. Tori knew Carly, Freddie and her sister, Shelby, were somewhere close by watching.

Earlier, Tori had called her friend Cat Valentine over to do a little make up job on the two teens from Seattle so they wouldn't be recognized from their web show, and her other friend Robbie Shapiro had quickly raided the wardrobe department at school so she and Shelby were wearing matching outfits. (If you didn't know, all stage productions have duplicates of all the wardrobe outfits in case one of them is damaged.)

Gary and Spencer had hit it off and Shelby's manager was taking Carly's brother with him to meet a few people. Hopefully Spencer would make a few connections to sell his art work or maybe even drum up a few commissions.

Juan and Sam had also hit it off, both realizing that their aggressive tendencies meshed so well, and had decided to skip the party and go out somewhere on their own. No one asked where they were going or what they were going to do, but Freddie had a feeling that the pair might return that evening a little bruised and worse for wear. (Can anyone say Fight Club?)

Trina was supposed to be babysitting some kids and, as a precaution, Tori had Rex (Robbie's alter ego/puppet) text her older sister saying that the bash had been canceled because Keenan had returned early from his trip to New York. When Trina asked her sister about the party, Tori confirmed (read "lied") that it had been canceled and that she was just going to take the Seattle teens out for a bite to eat.

Treating the date as an acting assignment, Tori mingled with Steven at the party playing the devoted girlfriend. After a half hour she excused herself to go to the bathroom. When out of sight, she met up with Shelby in a designated area of the house and the martial arts fighter took her place on Steven's arm a few minutes later.

"Steven, sweetie," Shelby cooed to her sister's soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, "I missed you so much when you were living with your mom in Seattle. How do I know you didn't find another girlfriend when you were up there?"

"You know I wouldn't do that, babe," Steven smoothly answered as he pulled out a small gift box out of his jacket pocket and gave it to her. He let her open it before he continued, "If I did, would I buy a one-of-a-kind charm bracelet for my one-of-a-kind girlfriend?"

"It's beautiful," Shelby gushed as she let him place it around her _left_ wrist. "Thank you." She leaned in and gave him a passionate kiss on the lips while squeezing him tightly with her powerful arms.

"_Can't... breath..._" Steven gasped from the hug that almost cracked a few of his ribs.

"I'm sorry, Steven," Shelby cooed as she released him and patted his chest a little too hard, knocking him back a couple of feet. "I guess I don't know my own strength tonight."

"You _are_ a lot stronger than when I was in L.A. last," Steven gasped for air and almost fell over from the blows to his chest. "Maybe we should do something less physical, like maybe dance for a while."

"Okay," Shelby heartily agreed as she threw both hands in the air and loudly cheered, "I'm in such a good mood I feel like cutting loose tonight."

The dancing went off without a hitch, as far as Shelby was concerned. The music was fast and loud and she moved with complete abandon, randomly hip-checking Steven into other nearby party-goers.

Steven grew a bit concerned since Tori had never danced like this with him before. The Hollywood Arts student had always been a bit free with her dance moves but she'd always been in control because Tori had told him once that she didn't want to embarrass herself in public.

Tonight was completely different.

The next hip-check Shelby delivered was precise and more powerful than any of the others she had punished him with. She managed to shove Steven into another couple who spilled their drinks all over the front of his shirt and jacket.

"Oh my gawd, I'm so sorry Steven," Shelby anxiously said as she tried to wipe up the large spill with a single napkin she'd quickly snatched off a nearby buffet table. "That punch will stain if you don't get it out right away."

"I'll be back," Steven sighed as he headed for the bathroom. He grabbed a bottle of soda water along the way to help get the stain out.

Shelby dashed into the next room where she knew Carly, Freddy and Tori were discretely watching. Smiles spread all around as the twins shared a high-fived and the MMA fighter gave Tori the charm bracelet, placing it on her _right _wrist. They compared it to the one Carly had brought along, just in case, and found them to be a perfect match except for the name. (Steven had gotten that wrong on Tori's bracelet. It read 'Topi'.)

The Los Angeleno then moved back onto the dance floor and started dancing with herself while she waited for her date to return.

When Steven came back ten minutes later trying to dry off his shirt with some more napkins, Tori turned on him and yelled, "Where were you!? You left me all alone and some guys started hitting on me!"

"I..." Steven got out before Tori cut him off and tore into him some more.

"I bet you met up with a cute girl and made out with her while you were gone."

"Tori, I would never do that," Steven loudly denied and tugged on his shirt, showing the girl a light red stain he wasn't able to get out. "I've been trying to get the punch stain out that _you_ caused."

"Punch stain?" Tori questioned and got up close to look at the red splotch on his green shirt and black jacket. "I didn't cause any punch stain. I bet you did that to yourself as an excuse to secretly meet up with your other girlfriend that you brought along with you from Seattle."

"Don't get all possessive and jealous on me, babe," Steven was stunned for a second at the on-target allegation of having a girlfriend in Seattle but thought Tori couldn't possibly know about Carly, so he quickly regained his cool and wrap his arms around Tori's waist. "Maybe it was my clumsiness while we were dancing. I would _never_ go out with another girl. You're my one-and-only, remember?"

He brought Tori's left arm up to eye level to remind her of the charm bracelet he'd just given her not more than twenty minutes ago and noticed that it was missing. Steven asked, "Um, where's the bracelet I gave you earlier this evening?"

"It's right here silly," Tori giggled, holding up her _right _arm. "Right where you placed it." Sure enough, the bauble was there around her right wrist.

"I could've sworn I put it on your left wrist," Steven said in utter confusion as he examined both of Tori's wrists.

"No, silly," Tori laughed and playfully slapped his chest with a lot less force than Shelby had earlier. "It's right where you put it and I'm never taking it off."

"Oh, okay," Steven shrugged while rubbing his sore chest. He suddenly realized that the blow which was just delivered wasn't as hard as the one before, but wrote it off as Tori taking it easy on him. "Maybe I forgot which wrist it was on because I'm just anxious to get our hundred day kiss out of the way."

"I understand," Tori said as her smile grew and she leaned into his arms. "Maybe _I'm_ just a little nervous about it too."

"That must be the reason," Steven cooed and kissed her on the lips, giving up on trying to figure out why he thought the bracelet was on the wrong wrist or why Tori occasionally became stronger, then weaker. He also noticed that her lips tasted different. He shrugged that off as maybe her using a new lip gloss while he was in the bathroom trying to remove the punch stain. "This is the longest I've been in any relationship and I'm a bit nervous."

"Well _maybe_ we should settle our nerves with an early hundred day kiss," Tori coyly suggested with demure, half-lidded eyes.

"I like the way you're thinking," Steven enthused, took Tori's hand and turned to leave the room. "Let's go."

"I'll meet you there," Tori said, breaking away from her ex-boyfriend's gentle grip. "I want to hit the bathroom and check my makeup." She enticingly squealed, "I want to look _extra_ good for our special kiss."

"I'll see you in a few minutes," Steven lovingly sighed as he gave her another peck on the lips and left the room, heading for the closet they'd earlier discovered and designated as the location for the special kiss when they'd first arrived.

Tori made sure Carly, Freddie and Shelby had already left the other room before she headed for the closet she and Steven had earlier selected. It was also going to be the destination of their final confrontation. Tori suspected that the three teens were already in position.

Steven checked the hallway, making sure he wasn't seen by anyone, before he ducked into the closet.

"Hi, Steven," Shelby cooed from deep inside the closet and walked up to him, still pretending she was Tori. "What took you so long?"

"How did you get here so quickly?" Steven begged in shock as he turned to the closed door like he could look through it and figure out how she'd arrived there before him. He had made a beeline to the closet from the dance floor so he should've gotten there first.

"What do you mean?" Shelby asked in a bit of a huff as if she had been offended by his question. "What took _you_ so long? I've been waiting for you for like _ten_ whole minutes!"

"But I came directly here," Steven gasped, totally at sea as to what she was talking about or how she got there. Tori hadn't passed him in the hallway so he should've gotten there long before she did. "You said you were going to check your makeup and I came straight here. It only took a minute or two."

"Aha!" Tori accused as she threw open the closet door, entered and turned on the light. "I knew you were seeing someone else behind my back!"

"I-I-I..." Steven stammered, totally in shock at seeing double, his head swiveling back and forth between the two identical girls. There were _two_ Tori's, both dressed exactly the same flanking him. He shouted out in confusion, "What's going on here?"

"Aha!" Carly shouted as she stormed into the large hallway closet. "I knew you were seeing someone behind my back! You're two-timing me with twins! That makes you a _three_-timer!"

"Carly?" Steven yelped in total meltdown mode. "What are you doing here in L.A., and why were you naked in bed with Freddie?"

"I came to visit your _other_ girlfriends," Carly angrily growled as she swiftly moved forward, backing the boy up against the wall and totally ignoring the question about her and Freddie.

"Do you think it's alright to have a girlfriend in every city you live in?" Tori vehemently questioned as she strode up to stand on Carly's right side. "How many other girlfriends do you have hanging on the line? L.A.'s a pretty big city."

"I think we should pound him into a pulp," Shelby menacingly said as she took up a position on Carly's left side and punched her right fist into her left hand.

"Nah," Freddie said as he came out of the shadows with his trusty camera in hand video taping the whole scene. "I think we should expose him as a liar and cheater on a web show; Possibly one where about a million people are watching. That'll teach him."

"I think you're right, Freddie," the three girl's all cheerfully chimed in unison.

"Steven kissed me tonight," Shelby nonchalantly said, turning to look into the camera, "and said I was his _only_ girlfriend."

"He kissed me too," Tori cheerfully said with a broad smile and coyly wink to the video device. "And he told _me_ the same thing."

"And he kissed me good-bye in Seattle a few days ago after giving me this charm bracelet, telling me _I_ was his only girlfriend," Carly said, holding up her wrist to show off said bangle. "He told me it was one-of-a-kind."

"He said the same exact thing to me," Tori said, holding up her right wrist to show off the jewelry there, "when he gave me this one tonight." Tori and Carly held their bracelets up next to one another so Freddy could zoom in on them, making sure the iCarly internet viewers could see that they were identical.

"They're really pretty," Shelby mock-pouted to the camera as Freddie pulled out from the two girl's wrists. She playfully whined, "I want a charm bracelet, too."

"Is this going out live?" Steven begged in horror but already knew the answer. Carly and the gang rarely pre-taped any of their segments. But that's what he liked about the show, it's spontaneity.

"Yep," Freddie chuckled as he pointed to his laptop on the floor which showed that the feed was going out that very minute. "But only about a million people watch the show each week."

"Which means you are majorly busted," Shelby snidely snarled at the boy while cracking her knuckles. "Or _maybe_ you'd prefer it if we busted you in a different manner?"

"This is..." Steven got out in frustration before he dashed from the closet, totally humiliated.

"Bye, Steven," the three girls sing-songed with a cutesy wave to the departing boy.

"Well, that was fun," Carly said, turning to the camera. "And for those of you out there who aren't quite sure what just happened. Steven _was_ my boyfriend in Seattle when he spent time there with his mother."

"And he was _my_ boyfriend when he spent time with his dad here in Los Angeles," Tori quickly added.

"But not any more," the two girls said together.

"And this," Carly said as she brought Shelby into frame, "is Tori's twin sister, Shelby Marx. You may recognize her from the MMA."

"She the current reigning champion," Tori cheered as she stepped around Carly and hugged her sister. She gushed, "I'm so proud of her."

"They just found out that they are sister," Carly said to the camera, "so you might want to go and do something else right now. We're ending this show so they can catch up with each other."

"Bye," the three girls happily said with a cutesy, cheesy wave to the camera.

"And we're clear," Freddie said as he picked up his laptop and switched the feed over to something else he had set up. "Good show, ladies. I'm running some edited footage of your little 'Switcheroo' game right now for our audience." He turned the screen around so Carly, Tori and Shelby could watch the video that Freddie had shot of all the interaction throughout the night between the twins and their former date.

"How long will it run?" Carly asked, still feeling the rush from busting her ex-boyfriend. "I feel like celebrating and we're already at a party."

"Well," Freddie, pondered, scratching his head with his free hand, "I was able to edit everything down to somewhere around five minutes so it _should_ be over soon."

"Wait a minute," Tori asked in disbelief as she grabbed the edges of the laptop so she could watch the video a little closer. "You edited just over one _hour_ of footage down to five _minutes_ in the time it took Steven and me to walk back here to the closet?"

"Um, yeah," Freddie nonchalantly shrugged as if it were nothing special. "I did most of the editing in-camera while I was shooting so it didn't take long to edit the rest and download it onto the computer."

"Well, I gotta say that you did a marvelous job," Tori enthused as she and the other two girl watched the remainder of the footage running on the screen. "Your cuts are perfect and your camera work is superb. I bet you could get a job at Hollywood Arts right now teaching video production."

"It isn't _that_ good," Freddie humbly chuckled. "I just threw it together. When I have some spare time I'll do a better job and post it in the archives. If you check it out in a few days, you'll see a _big_ difference."

"Is he _always_ such a perfectionist?" Tori jovially asked Carly.

"Yes, but he _my_ perfectionist," the web hostess said with a beaming smile at the guy she truly loved and always came through for her.


	5. Meet The 'Rents

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **iCarly** and **Victorious **on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious **and it's aftermath. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 5

Meet the 'Rents

Xxxxxx

"Mom! Dad! I'm home early!" Tori Vega called out as she, Freddie and Carly entered the Vega house and didn't see anyone in the living room or kitchen.

"I thought you'd be out a lot later with Steven," Holly Vega said as she and her husband David came down the stairs still dress in the clothes they'd worn that day. "He's such a nice young man."

"_I_ don't think so," Tori angrily replied and pointed to the girl standing next to her, "and neither does she. Steven's been dating Carly while he lived with his mother in Seattle." She tried to rein in her anger but it was hard to do. She'd been repressing it all evening before the closet finale. Tori knew that her time with Steven was over but she still had mixed feelings for the guy. That's what made her so angry.

"He was two-timing you?" David Vega asked in anger. "Why I'll get that _punk_ if it's the last thing I ever do."

"You don't have to worry about it, Mr. Vega," Carly giggled. "We got back at him tonight at the party."

"Wait," Mrs. Vega said as she suddenly recognized the girl. "You're Carly Shay from iCarly. Tori loves your show and we watch it sometimes, too. You're very funny."

"Thanks," Carly said and pulled Freddie to her side. "And this is my boyfriend, Freddie Benson. He's the technical producer of the show, runs the camera and sometimes acts with us."

"It's nice to meet you, son," David Vega said with an outstretched hand. "You do an excellent job from what I've seen of the show and have heard from my daughter and wife."

"Thank you, sir," Freddie said as he shook the man's hand. "I hope you and your wife will take the time to watch what we did on our web show tonight some time. I'm sure you'll thoroughly enjoy it."

"You did something tonight?" Holly Vega begged in confusion. "I thought your show was live on Saturday night, not Friday."

"Normally, yes," Carly said as she slowly moved back over to the front door. "But we came down to tell Tori about what Steven was up to _and_ to introduce her to someone."

Carly opened the door to show the Vega adults who was standing just outside.

"Hi mom. Hi dad," Shelby tentatively said with a meek wave from the doorway.

"Oh... my!" Holly gasped as her hands shot to cover her mouth in teary surprise.

"Oh God," David gasped, one hand going to his chin with one finger covering his mouth. The hand quickly fell away as he said, "You're more beautiful in person than you are on TV in the ring."

"Thanks," Shelby nervously laughed as she stepped into the house so Carly could close the door behind her. "So I take it you've watched some of my bouts?"

"We've watched _all_ of them," Holly said as she rushed over and engulfed the fighter in a huge motherly embrace.

"In private, of course," David said as he joined the hug. "We weren't sure how Tori would take the news that we let her sister be adopted."

"I was a little confused and miffed when I found out," Tori said as she went over to make it a real family group hug. "But I quickly got over it and we've bonded, in a fashion."

"Should we leave?" Freddie quietly asked Carly as he draped an arm around her shoulders, not wanting to intrude on the intimate family moment.

"No, no of course not." Holly had heard his question, sniffled and wiped the tears of joy from her eyes as she broke from the embrace and grabbed their arms to guide them over to the sofa. "You've just got to stay and tell us how this all came about."

"Was it during that charity fight you had a year or so ago?" David asked as he lead the twins over to sit. "It was an... _interesting,_ bout, to say the least."

"Well, that's part of it," Carly said as she leaned back into Freddie's one-armed embrace on the sofa. "I was searching the web, looking to see if Steven has an e-mail address because Freddie's mother had my phone and he was injured during a game of Boomba with Sam. When I started-"

David cut her off. "A game of _Boomba_?" he asked in disgust, the fingers and thumb of one hand rubbing his temples as he slowly shook his bowed head. "I'd hoped that game wasn't still around! What were you playing with? Grapes... tomatoes? My partner and I had to respond to a call with injuries when two kids were playing with apples."

"No," Freddie huffed, also in a foul mood from remembering the game that'd happened only a few days ago. He still had to move slowly and take it easy, suffering from the occasional twinge of pain if he moved wrong. "We were playing with _oranges_ and Sam sent me to the hospital."

"Anyway," Tori cut in, hoping to get the story back on track, "you were saying something about searching for Steven on the web?"

"Yeah," Carly said, trying to remember where she left off. "Anyway, I found a brand new pic of Tori and Steven together that had just been posted on **The Slap**, so I knew he was cheating on me."

"That's an terrible way to find out," Holly groaned in sympathy. "I'm so sorry you had to find out that way."

"Thank you," Carly responded before she got back to the tale. "So anyway, we all thought Tori looked a lot like Shelby," she said, indicating each of the twin girls when she mentioned their names, "and Freddie did a little digging and found out they were actually twins."

"Do I want to know just _how_ you got that kind of information?" David suspiciously asked. "I'll have you know, I'm a cop."

"No-no," Freddie anxiously waved the man off hoping to divert him from investigating his little excursion into the realm of cyber-hacking. "It's nothing you should worry about."

"I'll overlook it _this_ time," Mr. Vega said, slowly leaning back in his seat. "Especially since it involved my daughters. But I highly _suggest_ you refrain from any more information gathering."

"Thanks," Carly sighed in relief, not really thinking before about how much trouble Freddie could've gotten into by hacking into confidential, private files. "Well, we still had Shelby's contact info so we got in touch and hatched out a plan to get back at Steven and bring Shelby and Tori together. The rest is history."

"Not quite," Mrs. Vega said with a sly grin. "You haven't told us what you did to get back at Steven."

"Here, mom," Tori said, going over to the short decorative wall between the kitchen and raised floor where the piano and staircase were and grabbed the laptop computer sitting there. "You can watch it as it happened." Tori brought up the iCarly website and quickly found the videos that were archived there.

Tori's parents watched the two videos: One, the footage from the party and the second from the closet, as the four teens provided a running commentary of who was doing what. By the end of the videos, everyone was in stitches.

"Boy," David marveled when he finally came down from laughing so hard, "you really got him good."

"Hopefully, Steven's learned his lesson," Holly laughed. "But I very much doubt it. As the old saying goes, 'once a cheater, _always_ a cheater'."

"That's what I thought when I originally saw the pic," Carly laughed, having her earlier thought confirmed by an adult.

"So, what now?" Tori asked her twin sister. "What are your plans for the future?"

"Well, I don't have another bout scheduled for a few months," Shelby said, leaning back into the couch in deep thought, "so I'm not training very hard and have some spare time right now. I _would_ like to get to know you all a little better."

"You can stay here as long as you'd like, honey," Holly genially said as she got up off the couch and headed for the stairs. "You can use the guest bedroom whenever you're in town."

"I'd like that," Shelby said with a warm smile, happily looking forward to spending some time with her new family. Holly quickly disappeared up the stair to tidy up the spare bedroom.

"What about you two?" David asked Carly and Freddie. "Were you planning on stay in L.A. for the weekend or do you need to head back to Seattle right away?"

"We never really thought about it," Carly said in mild surprise, looking to her boyfriend to see if he had any ideas. "We were all so focused on getting revenge on Steven and bringing Tori and Shelby together that we really didn't think about what we'd do afterward."

"Well," Tori popped up with an idea, "why doesn't Shelby stay with me in my room while Carly and Freddie use the guest room?"

"But what about Spencer, Rod, Sam and Juan?" Freddie asked, remembering about the rest of the people that had accompanied them down from Seattle.

"Ummm, who are they?" David Vega asked, unsure who the young lad was talking about.

"Rod is my manager," Shelby clarified to her biological father, "and Juan is my trainer."

"Spencer is my brother," Carly continued the explanation, "and Sam is our best friend. You may have seen her on iCarly. She my co-host."

"Oh ya, the blond with a real attitude problem," Mr. Vega nodded as he remembered the troublemaker from one of the few shows he'd watched with his wife and also from Freddie mentioning Sam and the game of Boomba earlier.

"That would be Sam," Freddie grumbled in resignation, still not over her past treatment of him even though the blond had said she would try and be nicer to him. (And actually had been since her brief stint in jail.) Freddie knew it would take a while to get over his dislike for the way Sam had previously treated him but he was working on it.

"Well we certainly don't have room for all of you," David said, scratching his head trying to figure out what to do.

"Rod will probably stay with his friends in Beverly Hills all night to talk," Shelby opined. "That's what he usually does when he gets to a new city where he knows someone. And Juan's family lives in East L.A. so he'll probably stay with them while we're down here. Let me check with Rod." She pulled out her cellphone and dialed a number.

"I'll text Sam and find out their plans," Carly said as she got out her PearPhone and quickly tapped out a message.

"That just leaves Spencer," Freddie said as he got out his cellphone and sent a text message to Carly's brother. "I'll see what he's up to."

They immediately found out that Rod _would_ be spending all night networking with a few fellow managers and Spencer had been invited to spend the night with one of the gallery owners he'd met. (Who just so happened to be a woman his own age.)

Juan and Sam were harder to get a hold of. Sam eventually texted back and said they were going to spend the night at Juan's family home. She hadn't responded right away because they were in the middle of a impromptu welcome home party and she didn't want to miss out on any of the great food.

With everyone accounted for, Tori and Shelby adjourned to Tori's bedroom while Carly and Freddie were shown to the guest bedroom.

"I guess Sam and Juan are hitting it off," Freddie said from the walk in closet. He had gone in there to change into his bedtime attire and also to give Carly some privacy to change clothes. "I think she's found herself a new boyfriend."

"Yeah," Carly called back as she slipped under the covers of the double sized bed. She tittered, "Imagine hooking up with a new boyfriend all because of a butter sock."

"What's so strange about that?" Freddie asked. "We finally got together because of an orange."

"Oh my Gawd, you're right," Carly laughed at that revelation. "Maybe we should have Spencer bronze or shellack it or something."

"Only if you want it burned to a crisp," Freddie joked, remembering all the times something Spencer was working on suddenly bursting into flames. They both enjoyed a hearty laugh at Spencer's unintended arson-style antics.

"Are you decent?" Freddie asked from just inside the door to the closet.

"As decent as I've ever been, Mr. Benson," the brunette sassed back. "But you can come back into the room now, anyway."

"Is that an invitation, Mrs. Benson?" Freddie saucily begged as he stepped into the room dressed in blue-hued gym shorts and a tan colored penny T with the words _'Gopher Pancakes'_ on the front.

"I believe it is, Mr. Benson," Carly coyly shot back as she pulled down the covers of the bed for Freddie to crawl under. "And since this is Southern California and not Seattle, I think the weather is nice enough for you to lose the t-shirt and gym shorts."

Freddie's eyes grew large when he saw Carly in bed without a stitch of clothing on. All he could get out of his mouth was, "Ummm."

"Come on," Carly chided, patting the bed next to her. "You know you want to."

"Why are you doing this, Carls?" the boy growled in frustration as he swiftly turning his back to her. "Or did you do this with all your boyfriends?"

"Of course not," Carly howled in disgust. She slid out of bed, walked over so she was behind Freddie and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I _want_ to do this because you care so much about me and I want to show you how much I care about you."

"But to give up your virginity," Freddie reasoned, still not turning around. "As much as I'd love to do it, I think we're still too young to take that step."

"Who said anything about losing our virginity?" Carly coyly asked as she slid her arms around Freddies neck and snuggled into his back. "I know you respect me enough to hold off until we're both ready to take our relationship to that level. How about we just kiss and fondle a little and then fall asleep in each other's arms."

"I think I could go for a little of that, Mrs. Benson," Freddie said as he turned around in her embrace. They briefly kissed before Freddie asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm positive," Carly answered with a huge smile as her hands slipped from around his neck and slid down the sides of Freddie's body, stopping at his hips. Carly firmly grasped the sides of the shorts and then continued down his legs.

Xxxxxx

"So there we were in our footie pajama costumes," Tori said wide-eyed to her twin sister as they sat cross legged on her bed dressed in their usual nightwear, "in this _humongous_ cupcake shaped float in the baddest part of town, facing four of the biggest, meanest guys you've ever seen!"

"So, what did you do?" Shelby laughed at the predicament Tori and her friends had gotten into during their 'Parade-Parade' adventure. "I bet you all took off running, screaming into the night since none of you can fight?"

"No!" Tori defensively shot back as if she was offended by the idea. She sheepishly continued, "Actually they were very nice when they saw our flat tire. Two of them changed it while the other two left and came back later with a truck towing a trailer big enough to fit the float on and got us to the parade on time."

The two girl's laughter was interrupted when Carly and Freddie walked in through the open bedroom door, dressed for the day, and greeted in unison, "Good Morning!"

"Is it morning already?" Tori asked in shock as she jumped up off the bed and tossed the window curtain aside, letting in the morning sun. "Whoa, we talked all night!"

"Is that a surprise?" Freddie jovially queried. "You just found out you're sisters and have seventeen years to catch up on."

"Yeah, I suppose," Shelby said with a yawn and stretch. "But it's been a blast so I don't mind losing a night of sleep."

"How well did you two _sleep_ last night?" Tori coyly questioned with a little hint of innuendo undertone as she sat back down on the bed.

Carly shot a nervous glance at Freddie before she turned back to the identical twins with a blush and said, "Actually, it was the best night's sleep I've had in a long time."

"Me too," Freddie chimed with a cheesy grin as he wrapped an arm around Carly's waist and pulled her close for a quick peck on the cheek.

"I bet," Shelby slyly said with an evil grin on her face. She turned to her sister, "I'll have to remember that the guest bed creaks when I sleep in it. I tend to toss and turn before getting comfortable and I don't want to keep the whole house awake every night before falling asleep whenever I'm here."

Carly turned to her boyfriend and gasped in panic, "I didn't realize the bed made that much noise when we..." She cut herself off when she realized that she'd just confirmed Tori's implication. Carly had only meant for them to cuddle a bit before falling asleep but things quickly escalated and they ended up making love for the first time. (And both were well satisfied with the turn of events.)

The twin teens broke out in stereophonic laughter, the tone, pitch and timber of each girl precisely matching the other. (In other words, they sounded _exactly_ alike in their mirth.)

"Boy, that's really freaky," Carly observed as the two other girls came down from the laugh-fest. "I mean even Sam and her sister Melanie sound a little different so you can tell them apart."

Freddie ignored Carly's reference to Sam's mythical (in his mind) twin sister since he thought the two girls were still trying to play him with that gag. He shrugged his shoulders, motioned to the twins and said, "Actually, I think Shelby and Tori looking and speaking exactly alike would get boring after a while. At least you can tell them apart by what they wear."

Carly had to agree with her beau. Tori was wearing a pair of tight leggings and a snug fitting, long sleeved T-shirt with her UGG© style boots while Shelby wore a pair of gym shorts and tank top without anything on her feet. Carly suddenly had a thought and voiced it. "That _is_ unless they decide to switch clothes."

"Come on, let's all head downstairs," Tori said as she got up and walked toward the bedroom door, still occasionally giggling at the couple's red-faced embarrassment. "Since it's Saturday, you can decide what attractions you want to see here in Hollywood before you head back to Seattle."

As the four teens descended the stairs to the first floor, Freddie asked, "How _are_ we suppose to get back home? I mean if Shelby stays here with Tori for any length of time, wouldn't that mean Rod and Juan will stay in town too?"

"Don't worry," Shelby assured her two friends from Seattle as they reached the kitchen. "I think Rod has a meeting or two in Seattle on Monday to start on the publicity for my next fight so he'll want to go back either later today or tomorrow sometime. I'll check with him after breakfast and see when he's flying back."

Xxxxxx

With breakfast behind them, Shelby called her manager and found out he _did_ have a few meeting to attend to in Seattle on Monday and was planning on returning early Sunday afternoon.

And since Shelby was thinking about staying for a week or two with the Vegas, that meant Juan didn't have to leave his family, so he was going to remain in East L.A. until Shelby needed his training talents.

Carly had also called her girl friend and Sam had told her she'd decided to hang out with Juan until their flight back to Seattle. She also confided to Carly that she and Juan had really hit it off and were thinking about getting married right after she turned eighteen next summer.

The web hostess reminded her blond friend that they still had a year plus of high school left before graduation and that her marriage would ultimately take Sam away from her co-hosting duties.

That didn't faze Sam too much as she immediately reminded Carly that she probably wouldn't graduate, considering her grades (or lack thereof) and that iCarly would have to end sometime. Sam also told her friend that Juan was going to start training her how to fight properly, and that she could make a lot of money fighting in The Octagon, just like Shelby did.

Carly realized that Sam was right. The training would allow her blond friend to channel her aggressive nature in a positive way and make a living doing so. Carly also understood how Sam and Juan could get along so well that they wanted to get married. After all, she was looking at Freddie in the same light.

Anyway, they would talk more about it on the flight back to Seattle.

Unfortunately, there was a bigger problem with Spencer's current situation. He and the female art dealer, Cassandra Peterson, had immediately fallen madly in love and he now wanted to stay in Beverly Hills with her.

That meant Carly would _also_ have to move almost a thousand miles south.

Xxxxxx

Does the name of the art dealer sound familiar? When I chose it, I hadn't remembered that it's the real name of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.


	6. The Real Back S-Tori

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **iCarly **and** Victorious** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 6

The Real Back S-Tori

Xxxxxx

After breakfast, Carly and Freddie had taken off to see Spencer and his new crush in Beverly Hills. They had to travel there by city bus because Rod had one rental car and Juan had the other, but they didn't mind. They'd be able to see a bit of the city and talk during the trip.

Shelby and Tori had decided to stay behind at the house. They'd talked all through the night and both had one burning question neither could answer. The MMA fighter had something she needed to ask her biological mother and Tori wanted to hear the answer as well.

"Mrs. Vega...mom," Shelby tentatively started, still feeling awkward about calling Holly Vega 'mother' for obvious reasons. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Certainly, dear," Holly answered as she finished putting the breakfast dishes in the dish washer and walked back over to sit at the table with her twin daughters. She could see both of the girls were a bit troubled so she asked, "What's on your mind?"

"Well, I," Shelby quickly grabbed her sister's hand and corrected herself, "I mean _we_ want to hear the whole story about how I was adopted out to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Marx."

"Oh dear," Holly moaned low as she slumped back into her chair and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the whole mess that'd all started over seventeen years ago. "Are you sure you want to know? It's all very complicated."

"I think we'd both like to know," Tori nervously but firmly told her mother. "We _need_ to know."

"Okay," Holly Vega said as she let out a big breath to settle her nerves. "Well to begin with, you know your father, David, and Frank Marx worked together on the L.A.P.D.. Back then they were partners and both had just been promoted to Detective status." The two girls nodded, both being aware that the two men had worked together before Frank and Helen Marx moved to Seattle a few years later. Holly continued her story, "So anyway, Helen had a baby, a little girl, about a year after the promotion."

"Wait," Shelby yelped out in surprise, knowing that she was born almost three years _after_ the promotion. "You mean I have a stepsister?"

"I'm getting to that," Holly said, trying to calm the fighter down as she got up and retrieved three bottles of water from the refrigerator. She passed them out and sat down again as she continued. "Now, Helen and Frank were having problems with their marriage early on and the baby was being neglected due to the verbal fights. David and I asked if we could look after the little girl while they worked out their differences, and Frank and Helen thought it was a good idea... so we ended up adopting her."

"Trina," Tori whispered in shock.

"Yes, it was Trina," Holly said with a warm smile, pleased that her daughter was smart enough to realize the truth so quickly. "She was the main the cause of the disagreements between Frank and Helen. Trina was a fussy baby, always very demanding of attention."

"She still is," Tori snickered, thinking about how egotistical and demanding her sister was.

"Yes, she is," Holly laughed along and patted her daughter's hand in sympathy. "Anyway, I became pregnant with you two shortly after we adopted Trina. When we found out that I was carrying twins, Frank, Helen, David and I sat down and talked it over. Helen and Frank had worked out their differences by that time and wanted to take Trina back... but the State said the adoption was final."

"So you worked out a compromise," Shelby said in sudden realization, it all falling into place in her mind. "You all decided to split us up with me going to the Marx'."

"It was the best solution we could come up with," Holly sadly stated with a resigned sigh. "David and I only planned on having two children and Helen couldn't have anymore after Trina was born, due to complications. Your father and I wanted Helen and Frank to be happy and it was the only idea we could come up with."

"Whoa," Tori let out a huge breath as she took in all of the information given in the last few minutes. "So... Trina _isn't_ my real sister; she's really a Marx. Maybe that's why she took up martial arts."

"Yes," Holly answered with a sly smile. "Both Frank and Helen were into the martial arts before all of this happened. I guess they somehow passed that love of the sport on to their daughter... " she looked over to Shelby and lovingly patted her hand, "... to _both_ of them."

Xxxxxx

Carly and Freddie casually walked into the art gallery on one of the lesser known streets in downtown Beverly Hills and gawked at the mish-mashed collection of things for sale. The walls were covered with beautiful paintings of all kinds, from basis still lifes to ones that looked like the artist had simply splattered different colors of paint willy-nilly on the canvas. A plethora of pottery items and sculptures crowded the floor space, from chiseled granite statues to things that could only be described as pieces of junk fused together. (Reminding the teens of some of Spencer's work.)

One sculpture immediately caught Freddies attention. He nudged Carly and pointed to it.

"The Bottle-Bot?" the brunette girl yelped in surprise. The last time she'd seen the green soda bottle/metal tubing piece was in the SAM, the Seattle Art Museum, after Spencer had smuggled it in there to fool their grandfather into thinking Spencer was doing well with his art.

"Yes," a feminine voice came from behind the teen couple. "It's one of my favorite pieces. When I saw it, I immediately convinced the curator of the museum to let me have it."

The teens turned around and saw a slim young woman maybe in her mid to late twenties and standing a good four inches taller than Carly, wearing a pink penny-tee shirt that read '_Art = Life_', faded elephant-bottom blue jeans and Birkenstock sandals. Her wavy red hair cascaded down over her shoulders to the middle of her back and there was a playful twinkle in her emerald green eyes.

"Do you like it?" the woman asked with a mischievous sly smile.

"Of course I like it," Carly giggled at the question. "I've liked it ever since my brother made it."

"No doubt," the redhead laughed as she quickly stepped forward and wrapped the two teens in a warm hug. "It's nice to finally meet you Carly and Freddie."

"You know us?" Freddie incredulously asked, totally at sea as to why a twenty-something woman would know the teens. He didn't know of many adults that watched their web show.

"Of course I know you," the woman laughed as she took a step back out of the hug but grabbed their inside hands as she gazed at the young couple. "I've watched iCarly for years so I recognize both of you. Plus, Spencer went on and on about you two practically all night when we talked."

"You must be Cassandra," Carla said, putting two and two together.

"Right," Cassandra laughed as she raised their hands above her head, stepped forward and ducked underneath, then turned and brought their hands down in front of her with her arms crossed in front of her body, still holding on. "Com'on, Spencer's in the back."

She steered them toward the back of the store, still holding their hands with her crossed arms, until they passed what they could only guess was Cassandra's assistant, an older woman with long blond hair and dressed similarly to the redhead, who was helping a customer. Cassandra dropped their hands only for a moment to wave and point to the back of the store, then draped her arms across their shoulders and continued through the beaded curtain to the large storeroom beyond.

The Seattle couple immediately realized that the back room was actually an art studio with different areas designated for the different disciplines in the creative arts. One area had three easels positioned around a short platform and another had a potter's wheel and kiln. A third area was occupied by a tall, older man with longish red hair and a full beard wearing blue jeans, a light blue Canterbury shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a heavy canvas work apron while he chiseled away at a large hunk of stone. He briefly smiled and waved to them before setting back to work, chipping away at the rock.

Cassandra steered the two teens toward the last area in the back room where they found Spencer with a welder in his hands. He was arc welding a few steel rods together in what looked like a replica of the Bottle-Bot, but with two major differences.

This one had a metal frame skirt around its waist and two brightly colored, round glass spheres encased in a metal framework located where a girl's breast would be. It was a _female_ Bottle-Bot.

Spencer finished the spot weld, leaned back and moved the goggles he was wearing to his forehead, checking out his work. When he finally looked up and noticed the trio standing there watching him, he excitedly yelled out, "Carls! Freddo! Cassie! Come see what I'm making!"

"I know what you're making," Cassandra laughed as she quickly ran over, got up on her tip toes and gave him a brief but passionate kiss. "I'm the one who told you to make it, remember?"

"A female Bottle-Bot?" Carly questioned as she and Freddie came over to check out Spencer's latest creation. "I thought you didn't like to repeat yourself."

"He's not," Cassandra said, turning to the brunette. "I know someone who's interested in buying the original, but will only purchase it if it had a mate."

"So this is more or less a commission?" Freddie questioned as he closely checked out a few of the spot welds and saw Spencer had done an excellent job.

"A ten _thousand_ _dollar_ commission," Spencer enthused as he mimicked a spokes model, showing off the almost completed statue by posing and gesturing to it with outstretched hands.

"That's just for this one," Cassie laughed as she hugged Spencer. "We'll pull in double that amount when we sell the pair."

"Wow!" Carly marveled. "You've been in L. A. for less than a day and you've already sold two of your sculptures?"

"Uh, huh," Spencer smugly nodded. "And Cassie thinks she knows a few people who'll buy some of my other stuff, too."

"Way to go, Spence," Freddie cheered and bumped knuckles with the tall artist.

"Yeah, that's why I think we should move down here to L.A.," Spencer said with a broad smile. "There's a bigger market for my work down here than in Seattle."

"Spencer," Carly yelled in shock. "We can't just up and move. What about school? What about the apartment? What about our friends? Sam... Gibby... Socko? What would dad say... And that would also mean that Freddie and I would be separated after we'd just became a couple."

"Why don't you go upstairs and discuss it, dear," the redheaded man said as he walked over to the two couples while removing the heavy apron. He placed his hand on the redhead's shoulder and added, "I'll go out front and help your mother."

"That's a good idea, dad," Cassie said and gave him a brief peck on the cheek. She swiftly led the three Seattle-ites over to a solid wooden staircase set against the back wall and started to climb.

"So that's your dad?" Freddie queried as they ascended the stairs. "And the woman out front is your mother?"

"Yep," Cassie laughed as they entered a large living room with all of the usual furniture at the top of the stairs. Carly and Freddie could see a small kitchen through one of the doors, and a hallway that would probably lead to at least one bedroom in the loft apartment. "We all own the gallery and run it as a business. As you saw, dad likes to work with rock while my mom likes to sculpt things out of clay. I'm the painter in the family."

"And a great one at that," Spencer said as he flopped down onto the couch with Cassie sitting down right beside him and snuggling into his side. Freddie and Carly decides to share a large recliner that faced the couch with her sitting on his lap.

"Now to address some of the issues you've raised," Cassie started as she cautiously peered at the two teens. "There are quite a few good high schools around here but I think you two should think about attending my alma mater, Hollywood Arts. It's a performing arts high school only a coupla miles from my house."

"But we're not performers," Carly objected as she took Freddie's hand and gave it a little squeeze, meaning she included both of them in that statement.

"Are you so sure?" Cassie laughed, pointing at the young couple. "You two have been doing iCarly for a few years now. That means you have a _lot_ more acting experience than ninety-nine percent of the students enrolled there, _including_ the seniors; and that takes Freddie's tech skills into account, too. As to your friends?" She shrugged in resignation. "You'll probably leave them eventually after you graduate from school. I mean it's inevitable. High school friendships rarely last anyway since you all normally split up when you head off to different colleges."

"That's true," Spencer sagely nodded, thinking back on some of the friends he'd had in school that he never talked to anymore. "Socko's the only friend from high school that I still hang out with and that's only because we both decided to skip college and get creative. Cassie and I've already talk to him about selling his socks here in the gallery."

"Yeah but," Carly pushed on, hoping to find some flaw in their reasoning. "But what about Sam? She's been my friend since forever."

"I don't want to speak for her but it looks like Sam might be moving on without us," Freddie said to his girlfriend sitting on his lap. "I think she's more interested in Juan right now than heading back to Seattle and her mom."

"That's true," Carly nodded in resignation. After her talk last night and this morning with the blond co-host, it sounded like Sam was already thinking of moving out of her mom's house, quitting school and moving in with the trainer. But there was still one more major obstacle left to hurdle. "But what about Freddie and his mother? I don't want to leave my longtime friend now that we've just gotten together as boyfriend and girlfriend."

"You can all live in my house in West Hollywood," Casandra answered. "I'm sure Mrs. Benson could find work at Cedar-Sinai Hospital, not far from my house. They're always looking for qualified nurses." She turned to Spencer and poked him in the ribs. "That just leaves your dad to contend with. Maybe you should give him a call and find out what he thinks."

Spencer checked the time on his PearPhone and saw that it was just a little before ten A.M. That meant it was going on eight P.M. in Italy where his father was stationed. (Florence being ten hours ahead of Seattle.) He pulled up the telephone number his father had given he and Carly and dialed.

After a few seconds, "Hey dad, it's Spencer." The lanky artist listened for three seconds and said, "No, nothing's wrong. Actually everything's going great right now but we need to discuss something major. I'm putting you on speaker phone so Carly, Freddie and someone else can talk and listen in, too."

Spencer pushed the button on the phone and held it out between where he and Cassandra, and Carly and Freddie were seated.

"Hey Snug-Bug," the male voice came from the PearPhone. "Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you dad," Carly practically shouted in glee, hearing her father's voice for the first time in quite a while. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart," Colonel Steven Shay said with a tired sounding voice. "I just got back from a training exercise and I'm a little tired, but I can talk for a few minutes before I need to hit the hay. So, what's going on? Why the call?"

"Well," Spencer took over the call on their end, "we're all in Los Angeles right now and we think we'd like to move down here."

"Oh? Why the move?"

This was the part that Spencer didn't really want to divulge, but knew he had to. "Well, I _kinda_ dropped out of law school and have been pursuing my art. It's selling down here, there a huge market for it, and I think it'd be a good idea to move down here permanently."

Nothing came from the speaker for a good ten or fifteen seconds and Spencer was worried that his dad might have had a heart attack or was maybe climbing back aboard his jet to fly to L.A. to nuke him. He was just about to say something when Carly asked, "Dad, are you still there?"

"Yes honey, I am," Colonel Shay answered, a bit of a tweak to his voice. "I was just considering how to punish Spencer for waiting all these years before telling me that he dropped out of college. I already knew he did, but he should've manned up and told me sooner."

"Wait," Carly sat up in surprise. "How did you know Spencer dropped out?"

"It was fairly obvious when his first year's tuition money was refunded," the Colonel growled. Then everyone heard a heavy sigh coming from him before he said, "But we can talk about that later. Um, let's see. So Spencer's work is being well received in Los Angeles?"

"Yeah dad," Spencer answered. "Do you remember my Bottle-Bot? It was one of the first things I made shortly before your last visit."

"Yes, I remember it."

"Well, I met an art gallery owner down here. She somehow got it from the Seattle Art Museum for her shop and knows someone who want to buy it. And they wants me to make a second one to go with it. The pair will sell for twenty _thousand_ dollars."

"Can I speak to this art gallery owner?" the Colonel begged.

"Yes sir," Cassandra spoke up, "I'm right here. My name is Cassandra Peterson, but everybody calls me Cassie."

"It's a pleasure to talk to you, Miss Peterson," the Colonel greeted her and got right down to business. "Now, since you own an art gallery and probably know a lot about the subject, what do you think of my son's work?"

"Well, Mr. Shay..." Cassie started before she was rudely interrupted.

"You can call me either _Colonel_ or _sir,_ Miss Peterson." It sounded more like an order than a request.

"Okay, Colonel-sir," Cassie giggled and quickly added, "but only if you call me by my first name."

"Sorry, dad," Spencer quickly interjected before his father could correct Cassie for using both sir and his rank at the same time. "Cassie is a bit of a free spirit."

"I didn't mean to disrespect you or your rank, sir," Cassandra quickly added as an apology after realizing her mistake.

"That's quite alright, young lady," the Colonel laughed along. "Now as to my question?"

"Yes sir. I first saw some of Spencer's work on an iCarly segment a few years ago. Back then I thought he had some potential so I asked a few people I knew in Seattle to keep an eye on him. They told me about his run-in with Harry Joiner, the Seattle art critic, and also about his Labradoodle sculpture. My friends kept sending me pictures of his work and the latest pics proved I was right. Spencer has a _lot_ of talent and I think it's wasted up there in Seattle."

"That's quite an assessment, Casandra," Colonel Shay admitted. "So you think Spencer's work will sell better if he moves?"

"I'm _sure_ of it, Colonel," Cassie adamantly claimed. "So much so, I've offered to put up Spencer, Carly, Freddie and his mother in my house."

"That's quite a burden," the Air Force Colonel marveled. "Do you have the room?"

"I have plenty of room in my house," Cassie laughed. "But I also want Spencer close to me because I've fallen in love with the big lug."

"Okay," Colonel Shay seemed to accept the explanation before he turned his attention to his daughter. "Carly, what do you think of all this?"

"Well, we've briefly talked it over, I mean about school and such, and I can't see anything wrong with moving. The only thing we haven't done yet is talk it over with Freddie's mother."

Colonel Shay then asked, "Freddie are you there?"

"Yes Colonel, I am."

"What do you think your mother will say about all this?" the Air Force Officer asked before he laughed. "Is she still an overbearing neat-freak?"

"That's a kind way of putting it, sir," Freddie laughed along with everyone in the room at the question. "But getting back to the topic of us moving down here. She once told me she doesn't really like living in Seattle with the cold, wet climate. She's always been afraid that I could catch a cold and die of pneumonia, or maybe contract some kinda deadly Canadian germs, so she _might_ be agreeable to moving. But then again, mom might just go off on all the smog and traffic being dangerous down here in L.A."

"We hardly have _any_ smog now," Casandra informed everyone, especially Freddie, "but the traffic problems will always be a nuisance."

"Very well," Colonel Shay said over the telephone. "If you can e-mail me all of the details I'll think it over and come up with a final decision."

"Thanks dad," Spencer said, knowing full well that his father would need to mull over the situation for a day or two before making a decision. He'd told Cassie as much when they'd talked about him moving down there the previous night.

"Thanks dad," Carly echoed. "I'll e-mail you all of the deets after checking out the school Cassie told us about."

"I'll await your e-mail, Sung-Bug. 'Night all."

They all echoed their good nights and Spencer disconnected the call.

"Well," Cassie said as she stood up out of Spencer's loving embrace and clapped her hands once to get everybody's attention, "I suppose you'd like to take a look at the school as soon as possible."

Xxxxxx

The two couples: Carly and Freddie, and Cassie and Spencer, were wandering between some round metal picnic tables checking out the outside of the Hollywood Arts High School when they were approached by a very large, buff man in a light blue-hued suit.

"What are you people doing here on school property?"

"We were hoping to look around the school" Carly answered, slightly intimidated by the gruff man. She latched on to Freddie's arms for comfort and support and said, "Freddie and I are thinking about transferring here from Seattle."

"We already know a few student's who go here," Freddie said, thinking about Tori and her friends who'd helped them the previous night get back at Steven. He pointed at Cassandra and added, "And Cassie, here, thinks we'd fit in."

The large man looked over and finally notice Cassandra stranding next to Spencer. His face lit up as he greeted her, "Miss Peterson! It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too, Vice Principal Dickers," Cassie answered back with a sly smile. "I know it's Saturday, but is there any way my friends could look around the school for a few minutes?"

"Anything for one of our most illustrious guest speakers," Vice Principal Dickers said as he turned and led the small group into the school. He mentioned as he held the door for them, "I have a few miscreants in detention up in the library but Principal Eikner is in his office. He'll be able to show you around."

"What was that all about," Spencer asked Cassie after the Vice Principal disappeared down a hallway and she led them to the front office. "He called you a guest speaker?"

"I come in once or twice a year to talk to the students in art class," Cassie explained. She laughed and added, "You never know where the next Picasso or Rembrandt will show up and I want to be the one representing their work."

Xxxxxx

They met the Principal and he did show them around the school. When they arrived at the black box theater he asked the two teens, "So, you two are interested in transferring here? Our video production teacher has told me he'd love to get _the_ Freddie Benson from iCarly under his wings and a lot of the kids that go here praise your show, Carly."

"I don't know," Carly shyly laughed. "I don't think I'm talented enough to fit in here."

"Sure you are," Freddie confidently stated to his girlfriend. "You have a great singing voice and just think of what you can learn about acting." He could see that Carly wasn't totally convinced just yet so he added, "Plus, we'd get to go to school with Tori and her friends."

Carly thought for only a few seconds before she broadly smiled and said, "Okay. That sounds cool."

"That's great," Principal Eikner enthused, clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "So, would you like to audition right now?"

"What?!" Carly and Freddie shrieked in unison.


	7. Audition and Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **iCarly** and **Victorious **on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 7

Audition and Plans

Xxxxxx

"That's great," Principal Eikner enthused, clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "So, would you like to audition right now?"

"What?!" Carly and Freddie shrieked in unison.

The Principal explained, "All students who wish to attend this school have to pass an audition to get in. I already know you both qualify but the audition has to be witnessed by at least _three_ of the faculty, preferably four." Eikner quickly made for the door as he yelled over his shoulder, "I know two or three of the teachers live close by. I'll be right back." And with that, he was out the door.

"I'm not ready to audition," Carly panicked. "I don't have anything prepared."

Cassandra draped a compassionate arm around Carly's shoulder and said, "You only need to sing a song or act out a scene. Since Freddie mentioned you have a great singing voice, what kind of music do you usually listen to?"

"Well, normally I sing along with a few tunes on my PearPhone," Carly said as she pulled the bosc shaped cellphone from her pocket and pulled up her play list. "I love this one," she said pointing to the song at the top of the list.

"Carly," Freddie called out. He'd been wandering around the room after the Principal had left and was standing next to the audio sound board. "Bring your phone over here."

Cassie, Spencer and Carly walked over to the corner of the room where Freddie was and the brunette gave her cellphone to Freddie. He attached the phone to the large audio control board through a port in the back then fiddled with a few of the controls. After only twenty or thirty seconds, Freddie started the song and it came out through the surrounding speakers in the theater, with one tiny difference.

The music was playing but Beyoncé, the artist who recorded the song, _wasn't_ heard singing the lyrics.

Spencer was the first to ask the question that was on his, Cassie's and Carly's minds. "How'd you do that, Freddo?"

"You mean remove the vocal track?" Freddie laughed and patted the huge console in front of him. "It's easy when you have the right equipment, and _this_ is the right equipment."

Xxxxxx

A short while later, Principal Eikner entered the room with three other people. One was a older, hippy looking-type man who was partially bald, the second man was younger that the first and wore blue jeans with a nice dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. His brown hair was long, but not down past his shoulders. The third person was a beautiful, blond headed woman conservatively dressed in a long denim skirt and white blouse. She looked quite prim and proper.

"Hey, Sikowitz," Cassie called out to the balding teacher carrying a coconut in one hand. He was dressed in parachute pants, a loud poet's shirt and vest that clashed and wasn't wearing any shoes on his feet. "Long time no see."

"Cassie?" the teacher answered back like he couldn't believe his eyes. He chided, "When are you gonna come back in and help with some of the backdrops again? They haven't looked right since you left."

Casandra could see the questioning looks on Spencer, Carly and Freddie's faces, so she clarified, "I graduated from Hollywood Arts eleven years ago but I still helped out with the scenery department for a few years after until my paintings and the gallery really became popular."

"Carly Shay and Freddie Benson," the Principal started the introductions with the teens and then pointed out the three teachers when named, "this is Erwin Sikowitz, our acting teacher..." He waited for the pleasantries to finish, "...James Lang, Audio/Video teacher..." again he waited for everyone to shake hands, "... and Gwen Gibson, science teacher."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Freddie," James Lang said to the brown-haired boy before he directed him over to a folding table, opened his laptop computer (bringing up the iCarly website) and started asking Freddie a lot of technical questions about the web show and the equipment he used. After only a couple of minutes, the Audio/Video teacher was well satisfied and said so to the Principal.

Principal Eikner turned to Carly and asked, "Are you ready to audition now?"

"I didn't prepare anything," Carly shyly blushed before she was interrupted by Freddie.

"But I _have_ set up a song for her to sing."

Freddie moved over to the audio board, tossed a wireless microphone to his girlfriend and started the cued up song. (Mr. Lang walked over and curiously watched Freddie use the complex piece of equipment, knowing the boy probably hadn't operated anything that complicated before.)

Carly flawless sang the Beyoncé hit song, _You're The Reason _and everyone applauded when she was done.

The three teachers and Principal huddled up for a moment to talk before they came back over to the two couples. James Lang was the first to speak up, asking, "Freddie, how did you know how to operate the audio board and remove the vocal track from that song?"

Freddie shrugged as he said, "Well, the board _is_ a lot bigger and more complicated than the ones I've seen before, but it's laid out similarly so it wasn't that hard to understand and operate."

"Excellent, _excellent_ son," Lang praised. "You'll fit in nicely at this school."

"What about me?" Carly nervously asked. "It's great that Freddie's made a good impression, but how was my singing?"

"You have a very beautiful voice," Gwen Gibson stated with a big smile. "And my nephew will probably miss you and Freddie when you leave Seattle. Orenthal really enjoys working on the show and he'll dearly miss it."

"Wait a tick," Spencer said, putting two and two together and noticing the close resemblance between the lady and Charlotte Gibson, Gibby's mother, whom he had dated for a short time. "Gibby is your _nephew?"_ Suddenly her face morphed into that of Gibby in his mind's eye and he reeled back in disgust at the sight.

"Yes, Char is my younger sister," Gwen laughed at Spencer's dismayed look. "But don't worry, Spencer. I won't let a little thing like you dumping her affect your sister's chances of getting into this school."

"Aaaaah, thanks?" Spencer tentatively offered before he turned to Cassie and whispered something in her ear. Cassandra snorted out a laugh and playfully slapped his arm at what he'd said.

Principal Eikner ignored the... whatever goings-on between the two twenty-somethings, turned his attention to the two teens and asked, "So when would you like to transfer? The only obstacle I see is getting your transcripts sent here."

"Actually," Freddie sighed, sadly shaking his head, "there's one more _huge_ obstacle. Getting my mom to agree with moving down here."

Xxxxxx

"No mom," Freddie let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes as he talked on the telephone in Principal Eikner's office, the administrator letting him use the school's phone to talk long-distance to his mother to move the process along and answer any questions Mrs. Benson had. "As Cassie told you, we can live with her as long as we'd like or until we find a place of our own. It's close to the school Principal Eikner told you about and it's only six or seven blocks away from Cedar-Sinai Hospital, so you can practically walk to work since they're all in a very good neighborhood."

A smile grew on Freddie's face as he listened to his mother for a minute, then he said, "Okay mom, you do that. I'm sure you'll like the hospital. I've been told that a lot of famous people use that facility. Right. Well, we'll see you tomorrow when we get back. Good-bye. Love you too."

Freddie hung up the telephone and the smile on his face threatened to split his head in two.

"She agreed?" Carly practically screamed, guessing that the answer was a big fat yes.

"She's calling Cedar-Sinai Hospital right now to check on a job," Freddie laughed in relief and gave Carly a brief hug and kiss on the forehead. "I think what finally swayed her was the idea of walking to work for the exercise."

"Excellent," Principal Eikner said as he moved over to sit at his computer and started to type. "I'll contact Ridgeway High and have them send me your transcripts so you can start right away after the move."

The two couples bid their good-byes and left the office where they met Sikowitz waiting in the hallway. The teacher had a pensive look as he studied Carly for a second before he asked, "Has anyone ever told you you look like Michael Jackson?"

Before Carly could say a word or call him crazy, the balding teacher continued. "I mean you look a lot like him after he had all of his surgeries. I'm just saying... And I also noticed that your co-host, Sam Puckett looks like she could be Mariah Carey's daughter." With that said, Irwin Sikowitz took a sip from the coconut he had in his hand, turned and walked away.

Silence filled the hallway as Spencer, Cassie, Freddie and Carly shot glances at each other to see who could figure out what the teacher had meant.

Cassie finally shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sikowitz has always been a little strange."

"A little?" Carly giggled as she watched the barefoot, eccentric teacher confidently stride out the doors of the school to head off to who knows where.

"You'll get used to him," Cassie said as she led the Seattle-ites toward her car and changed the subject. "Who's up for some lunch?"

It was decided that sushi would be a suitable meal for their first time visiting Southern California. Just how sushi and So Cal were linked nobody could guess, but that didn't dissuade them from heading to a fairly new restaurant that Cassie knew of.

As they entered Nozu, the restaurant Cassie had driven to, Spencer looked around at the different wall decorations and observed, "I would guess Nozu means _nose_ in Japanese."

"Actually, no," a slim, older Japanese lady sassed as she walked over to greet her new customers. She put on a pleasant smile and said, "The Japanese word for nose is 'hana'. I'm Mrs. Lee, welcome to my restaurant. Would you like a table for four?"

"No, actually," Freddie cut in as he spotted a few friendly faces over to his left, up on a raised area he guessed could probably be used as a stage if they ever had live music in the restaurant.

Mrs. Lee followed Freddie's eyes over to see five teens sitting around one of the tables and sighed, "Oh, you're with _them._ Well I hope you have money cause I'm not putting you _all_ to work." She quickly turned and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the two couples to fend for themselves.

"What was that all about?" Carly wondered aloud as she finally saw who Freddie had spotted. Her face lit up and she called out, "Tori, Shelby, hi!"

"Carly? Freddie?" the tall, slender, brunette Angeleno called back in surprise as she got up from the table and ran over to greet them. "What are you doing here?"

"They probably came here to eat," the dark-haired, Goth-looking girl still at the table snidely called out as she leaned back into the one-armed embrace of a cute looking guy with really nice looking hair sitting next to her. "I doubt if they expected to find the Pacific Ocean here inside a building in Hollywood, especially since they're not dressed for the beach."

"Jade, be nice," the guy chided what was obviously his girlfriend, considering how cozy they appeared to be.

The red velvet hued-haired girl at the table exuberantly jumped up, ran over to Freddie and Carly, grabbed their hands and squealed in delight, "Carly, Freddie! You just gotta sit with us!"

"Hi Cat," Carly smiled at the bubbly teen who had helped them the previous night with some special make up so they could blend in at the party at Keenan Thompson's house without being recognized. "We'd love to sit with you guys."

Tables and chairs were rearranged so everyone could sit down fairly close as a group before the introductions were made.

"Carly, Freddie," Tori gestured to the two teens before she motioned to the others already at the table, "You already know Shelby, and met Cat Valentine last night..."

"Hi," the perky girl chimed with a small wave.

Tori sent a patient smile to the interrupting girl, then continued the introductions. "...and these are my other friends from school. This is Jade West and Beck Oliver."

"Yeah-yeah," Jade tiredly yawned. "You're two out of the three iCarly's. Where's your blond friend, Sam? She's the only interesting one on the show."

"Don't mind her," Beck spoke up as he leaned in to shake hands with the two teens. "She's..., " he shrugged in resignation, "always like this."

"It's nice to meet you, Beck," Carly said, taking his hand before she turned to Jade. "And to answer your question. Sam's probably in East L.A. with her new boyfriend, Juan."

"Who's _my_ trainer," Shelby quickly added to clarify any misunderstandings.

"And before you ask," Carly continued the introductions, motioning to her brother and his redheaded friend, "This is my brother Spencer, and his... um, girlfriend?" She slightly cringed, not knowing how to classify the woman.

"Girlfriend, fiancé or soul mate," Cassie giggled at Carly's inability to put a proper title to who she was."Anyway you want to put it, my name is Cassie."

"Soooo," Tori shrugged off the awkward moment and tried to get the conversation going, "what have you all been up to this morning besides visiting Beverly Hills?"

"We just came from Hollywood Arts High School," Carly proudly stated. "Freddie and I will be joining you there in a week or so after we move here to L.A."

"You're moving here?" Shelby asked, confused at the sudden, unexpected new. "Why?"

Cassandra jumped back into the conversation as she wrapped her arms around one of Spencer's and coyly answered, "You mean beside the fact that I want my stud muffin living with me? Well, Spencer's a great artist whose work is under appreciated in Seattle. He'll do much better down here."

"Yeah," Spencer echoed as he lovingly gazed into Cassie's eyes. "And I have my Muse to thank for discovering me." They started getting lost in each other's loving gaze before Cat broke the spell.

"Muse," the perky teen giggled. "That's such a funny word, Muuuuuuse. Muuuuuuse. It sounds like a cat talking. Hey!" She suddenly perked up like she'd realized something and her voice went up an octave. "Wait a minute. _My_ name is Cat and I was Muuuuuuusing. Hee hee hee!"

"Caaaaat," Jade said in a warning tone as she pulled a two or three foot long piece of kite string out of her pocket and tossed it on the table in front of the redheaded girl. "Play with the pretty string."

"'Kay-'kay," the perky young girl distractedly said as she picked up the string, started dangling it up and down in front of her and laughed to beat the band.

Jade momentarily shook her head at her friend's ditzy manner before she turned to the two teen visitors from Seattle. "So you two got in to Hollywood Arts. What did ya do for an audition? Or did you ride your little web show's coattails in and didn't have to audition?"

"We auditioned," Freddie defensively said, taken aback by the inference that he ad Carly could simply waltz in to the performing arts school without having to prove they were talented. He realized something and added, "Well Carly sang but I just talked to one of the teachers, Mr. Lang, for a few minutes in the black box theater before I qualified."

"You did more than just _talk,"_ Cassie firmly stated to him. "You may not have noticed it, but Mr. Lang was watching you operate the audio board. He was deeply impressed that you could operate it without having seen it before, and that you were able to filter out the singer's voice from the music track."

"Wait," Jade practically shouted, sitting up out of Beck's embrace. "You ran the sound board in the black box theater without having seen it before? We studied it in one of our classes and I still don't understand half of the dials and switches."

Freddie simply shrugged, "It was perfectly understandable to me."

_"Soooo,_ what did you sing?" Tori asked Carly, wanting to distract Jade a bit before she went ballistic over a teen who appeared to better at something than she was.

"Um," Carly was caught off guard by the question. She'd been so proud of hearing how both Cassie and the Goth-teen had marveled at Freddie's accomplishment that she wasn't prepared to discuss her audition. "Oh. I sang a Beyoncé song, '_You're the Reason'_."

"And Miss Gibson said you had a beautiful voice," Freddie added before giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"No Way!" Tori yelled in disbelief. "You sang _that_ song?"

"Yes, way," Carly answered and dug her PearPhone out of her pocket to show it to Tori. "I have it here on my play list. Freddie ran it through the sound board and eliminated Beyonce's vocals."

"No," Tori said in exasperation. "That was _my_ song. André and I wrote and sang it, and then I gave it to Trina for her birth week. She sold it to two record producers for five hundred dollars so she could buy a _hat."_

"Ha ha ha," Jade laughed and slowly clapped her hands in delight. This was the first she'd heard that part of the story regarding Trina's birthday present. "I bet you feel preeeetty stupid right now. And to have Carly get in to Hollywood Arts using _your_ song?"

"Hey," Tori angrily shouted at her dark haired friend. "At least _we_ got credit for writing it. Do you have _any_ music published, or sung by someone famous? Hummm!? Hummm!?"

That shut up Jade as she slumped back into Beck's one armed embrace and pouted like a spoiled brat. She sulked for a few seconds before she smugly smiled and said, "Well at least I don't have an obnoxious sister like Trina who sells her birthday presents for something impractical like a _hat."_

"Actually," Tori brightened up, savoring the news she was about to deliver that she and Shelby had only learned about this morning, "Trina's _not_ my sister she's only my stepsister. Shelby is my one and only _real_ sister."

Jade smirked and let out a single syllable laugh at that news before she said, "I bet you're glad about that. I guess insanity _doesn't_ run in your family."

Xxxxxx

Everybody enjoyed their lunch. The topic of conversation turned to where the Seattle-ites were going to live and how soon they expected to move. Cassie told everyone that they would throw a housewarming party just as soon as Freddie and his mother, and Spencer and his sister got settled in, and that they'd all be invited.

Jade, Beck and Cat left shortly after the meal was finished and the rest of the table decided to head to Cassie's house to check it out.

"Whoa," Tori marveled as Cassie pulled into the driveway of what could only be described as a _small,_ two-story, red brick mansion.

"Nice, isn't it?" Spencer said with a little pride since he and Cassie were a couple now and he'd already spent the previous night there.

"It sure is," Carly said, stunned that there would be such a large but beautiful home so far away from Beverly Hills. "How can you afford it?"

Cassie put her large SUV in park and turned to Carly. "It was my grandparent's house on my mom's side. They didn't like my dad so they left it to me. Luckily, my artwork and the shop started making enough money before they passed away so I didn't have to sell the place."

"I'm sorry to hear they passed on," Carly said as everyone started to get out of the vehicle and head into the house. "Spence and I only have one granddad now and he lives in Yakima. We hardly ever get to see him."

"It's all a part of life," Cassie said as she wrapped a sisterly arm around Carly's shoulder and walked her into the house.

"Whoa, nice," Tori marveled again when she saw the inside of the large house. While her's was spacious and modern in appearance, this looked like something out of the Victorian Era. The furniture all appeared to be from the 1800's with knobby, clawed, wooden feet and the lamps had decorative tassels or diamond shaped crystals hanging from the shades. She estimated the huge, ornate chandelier hanging above the extremely long dinning room table must have cost a fortune, even when the house was new.

"Yes, my grandma had good taste," Cassie said with a wane smile.

"She certainly did," Spencer echoed as he brought her into a loving embrace and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Just like you do."

"I guess so," the redhead lightly laughed as she playfully slapped his chest. "I picked you, didn't I?" She swiftly pirouetted out of Spencer's arms, headed for the staircase and said over her shoulder, "Let me show you the upstairs so Carly and Freddie can pick out their rooms."

Bedrooms were quickly chosen or assigned. Everyone laughed when Freddie found out that his room had a balcony instead of a fire escape and Carly wondered where she would put all of her stuff; The room looked to be only half the size of her bedroom back in Seattle. Cassie assured her that anything that wouldn't fit in the bedroom could be put to use in one of the empty rooms in the basement, maybe even turning the space into a rec room for her and her friends to hang out in. (It was a given that Spenser and Cassie would share her current bedroom and Freddie was ecstatic to learn that his mother's bedroom would be on the other end of the ten bedroom building from his.)

As they were walking back down the stairs, Freddie got a phone call from his mother. They were all elated to hear that Mrs. Benson had talked to someone in the personnel department at 'Cedars' and, after they had checked with the Seattle hospital where she now worked, had been offered a job and now had one whole week to move.

Coincidentally, Spencer received a call from Colonel Shay at the same time. Even though Carly hadn't had time to e-mail him, the Air Force Officer gave his wary approval for the move, citing the new and exciting opportunities both Carly and Spencer would experience in the larger city.

Spencer and Cassie had to get back to the galley so her parents could go to lunch and he could finish his 'She-Bottle-Bot' (or as Cassie like to call it, the 'Bottle-She-Bot'. That name just rolled off the tongue easier.) so Freddie and Carly returned to the Vega house with Tori and Shelby in a taxi.

Xxxxxx

Most of the gang: Spencer, Carly, Freddie and Rod, along with Juan and Sam, all flew back to Seattle Sunday afternoon. (Shelby was going to stay with Tori and the Vega family for a week or two.)

Carly and Sam immediately seated themselves in a corner of the private jet, away from everyone else, for a hushed but very animated conversation. Sam found out that Carly and Freddie had consummated their relationship and the brunette heard all the juicy details of a similar joining between the blond and her trainer/boyfriend.

A broad smile grew on Carly's face when Sam started to profusely apologize because she was going to quit school, move out of her mom's house and in with Juan and start training to be an MMA fighter, and that she wouldn't be able to see Carly as often or continue to co-host iCarly.

An equally broad smile appeared on Sam's face when Carly told her friend that she, Spencer, Freddie and Mrs. Benson were moving to Hollywood, and that she and Freddie had already been accepted at the preforming arts high school there.

Carly was a little concerned, concidering the age difference between Sam and Juan, but when she voice her doubts, Sam told her girl friend that the difference wasn't that much and she and Juan didn't mind. That set Carly's mind at ease.

But there was one more thing to talk about: iCarly.

Both girls knew that the web show wouldn't last forever and that Carly would eventually head off to college leaving Sam behind, so the early separation wasn't too hard to swallow for either of them. There were still going to be a few tears when they parted, but they both vowed to keep in touch no matter what.

Sam suggested that maybe, since Carly was attending a preforming arts school with kids their own age who loved to preform, that she could persuade one or two of her new classmates to help out with the show and keep it going. Carly thought that maybe it would be better if she brought in a different co-host each week. That way a lot more of her fellow students would gain a little acting experience and exposure.

A few ideas were tossed around but it was decided against having the students come on the show to perform serious plays. iCarly was, after all, a comedy based web show, so no serious chizz would be allowed. (Well, maybe the occasional singer could be booked but definitely _no_ dramatic acting. Their audience just wouldn't understand.)

When the conversation wound down, Sam moved over to cuddle up with Juan while Carly snuggled in with Freddie to enjoy the rest of the flight.

They all knew that the next week of their lives would be extremely hectic.


	8. The Move

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the show **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 8

The Move

Xxxxxx

The next five days were very hectic around Bushwell Plaza. Spencer Shay spent all day packing while Carly Shay and Freddie Benson were in school, and the teen couple, plus Sam Puckett, pitched in after classes were out. When word spread around Ridgeway High on Monday, pandemonium ensued. Classes were constantly disrupted when the students kept passing notes to Carly, Freddie and Sam, begging to find out what was going on and why they were moving. Gibby was so upset at the news he fled the classroom, crying, and ran straight home.

Mrs. Marissa Benson sill had to pull a daily shift at the hospital so most of the Benson household had to be packed up by Spencer and the teens. Sam didn't have that much to move to Juan's place so it only took one quick trip.

Marissa and Spencer decided to pool their resources and hire a moving company to transfer their furniture, clothes, kitchenware and everything else down to their new home. When Friday rolled around, almost everything was packed and ready to go.

The only things that hadn't been packed were Freddie's camera and laptop, the two things needed to preform a final farewell for the Seattle based web show.

The former third floor studio of the Shay apartment was totally bare (even the flame-painted, half car had been placed on the moving van, slated to be used in the basement rec room of their new house) as Freddie counted down.

"In five, four, three, two..."

"Hi, I'm Carly," the usually bubbly brunette sedately said into the camera wielded by her LBF. (Her lover/boyfriend.)

"And I'm Sam," the blond said with a wane smile, equally saddened as the thought that this would probably be her last show suddenly struck her.

Together they intoned, "And this is iCarly."

Carly panned her hand around the empty room and Freddie zoomed out and followed her motion as she said, "As you've probably noticed, the studio is empty behind us, and there's a reason for that."

Sam's smile grew as she jibed, "Because Carly and the Nub are moving."

"Saaaam!" Freddie chided the blond from behind the camera.

"Oh, get over it, Freddork," Sam shot back, laughing at his distress. "This is the last show I'm gonna be on and I gotta get my shots in while I can. I think we should end the show just like we began it, with me calling you names."

"Wellll, okay... Hell-Spawn," Freddie shot back.

"Hey, I like that," Sam perked up at the moniker Freddie just gave her. "That wouldn't be a bad nickname for my new career in the MMA."

"Anyway," Carly stepped in to get things back on track. "As Sam was saying, Freddie and I are moving to Hollywood while she's staying here in Seattle, so this will be the last show for our little group."

"That's right," Sam said, taking over the explanation. "Carly's brother, Spencer, found himself an insane lady down there that'll put up with him, so he's moving in with her."

"Cassie is _not_ crazy," Carly yelped in surprise at Sam's inappropriate joke. "She loves him."

"Well, she must be nuts if she'll put up with Spence."

"Watch it, Sam," Freddie jokingly warned, still behind the camera. "There are plenty of Spam shippers out there in our audience; Guys that think _you_ and Spencer should be a couple."

"Oh yeah?" Sam questioned and started to think about it. Her smile grew as she drifted off into pondering about the different possible sexual scenarios. "He does have some pretty big hands. That means he probably got a big..."

_"Sam!"_ Carly shrieked at her friend considering getting together with her brother in _that_ way. Her _older_ brother that was a _lot_ older than they were. "Aren't you and Juan a couple now?"

"Right, right," Sam quickly came out of her reverie. "Juan."

"Anyway," Carly slowly shook her head. Things had quickly gotten out of hand. This was only suppose to be a quick little good-bye to let their fans know what was going on. "This is our last show together. Freddie and I might start it up again after we settle in our new home but we haven't decided who would be my new co-host. There are plenty of guys and gals at Hollywood Arts that could fill the role."

"And I decided to stay here in Seattle with my future husband," Sam said, making sure all of their fans knew Carly wasn't just abandoning her. "He's the trainer for Shelby Marx and he's starting to teach me how to fight in the Octagon."

"Sam's aggressive nature will certainly help with that," Freddie sarcastically chimed in from behind the camera.

"It most certainly will," Sam said as she threw a couple of quick jab and uppercut combinations directly at the camera. "Mamma plays to win and she don't back down."

"No she doesn't," Carly laughed at Sam's antics. She turned to the camera and somberly continued, "We've had a lotta fun doing the show."

Sam folded her hands in front of her chest, batted her eyes and said in a over-dramatic falsetto voice, "If we've brought a little _joy_ into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work _ain't_ been in vain for _nothin'._ _Bless_ you all."

"Say," Carly suspiciously begged to her blond friend, "Isn't that a quote from the movie we watched a few weeks ago? _'Singing in the Rain'_?"

"Yes," Freddie answered her question. "It's what the blond actress, Lena Lamont, said in her acceptance speech for an Oscar®." He slyly added, "Kinda appropriate coming from you, Sam, don't ya think? I mean one blond bimbo quoting another?"

"You're not leaving Seattle until tomorrow, Fredwad," Sam said in a menacing voice, taking a step toward the camera and leaning in. "So _watch-_it."

"Well I think the sentiment is pretty good," Carly said, pulling Sam back into position by the shoulders. "We hope we've entertained you just a little over the years."

"Yeah," Sam mock-angrily yelled like she was upset with their audience. "But it's over now so stop sitting around in your little darkened bedrooms, surfing the internet. Why don't'cha go outside for a change and get some exercise or something."

"Sam," both Carly and Freddie chided the blond girl for her insensitive remark. (Tho the sentiment was okay, the condescending way it was delivered, wasn't.)

"Well," Sam backpedaled a bit and shrugged. "You remember all of those overweight slobs at Webicon a few years ago, don't'cha? They _need_ to get a life and a lot more exercise."

Carly turned to the camera, let out an exasperated breath and said, "I apologize for Sam's insensitivity. She hasn't had her daily dose of ham or fried chicken yet."

"Um, _Yeah!"_ Sam practically screamed in despair. "That's because you're moving and Spencer's already cleaned out the fridge. I there watch ya. Remember?"

"Spencer and I _did_ empty out the fridge," Carly said with a growing smile, "but we put some ham back in there just for you."

Sam immediately perked up and squealed in delight, "Really? Well if that's the case," she swiftly left the room, yelling over her shoulder. "Bye y'all!"

Carly looked into the camera with an apologetic smile, shrugged and said, "This has been iCarly. Bye."

"And, we're clear."

Xxxxxx

Saturday morning found Mrs. Benson, Spencer, Carly and Freddie all ready to board their plane at Sea-Tac, the main airport serving the Seattle/Tacoma area. Pam Puckett was also there, having driven Sam out to say good-bye to the departing Seattle-ites. (Washingtonians? North Westerners? Any way you say it, they were people who used to live there.)

"I'm really gonna miss ya, Carls," Sam honestly said to the brunette girl as they hugged for what was probably going to be the last time in quite a while.

"No," Spencer cut in to what was quickly becoming a sappy good-bye. "You're going to miss coming over to our house and raiding the refrigerator all the time. I hope Juan's learned that he needs to keep a lot of fried chicken, ham and bacon on hand for when you're with him."

"He already does," Sam laughed as she walked over and gave Spencer a hug, too. "Juan knows the importance of protein and carbs in one's diet when you're training. The best part is that he has a cousin not far from here that raises pigs and chickens, and sends Juan free stuff when he butchers a few of them."

"Is it cooked?" Freddie begged in amusement, hearing Sam now had a direct connection to a source of her two favorite kinds of meat.

Sam rounded on Freddie and yelled, "No it's not. And I got real sick the first time I ate some."

"Then you're gonna have to learn how to cook now, aren't you?" Freddie jokingly asked, not backing down from the blond girl who had made his life a living hell, and almost paralyzed him for life, before they finally settled their differences.

"Yeah, I guess," Sam chuckled, putting aside her displeasure at the thought of having to actually do a little prep work and wait for an hour or two before she could eat.

The announcement everybody had been both waiting for and dreading came over the public address system. _"Flight nineteen ninety-three for Burbank Airport now boarding at concourse 5, gate fourteen."_

"That's us," Mrs. Benson stated, even though she knew everyone was well aware what flight number they were waiting for. She had drilled it into them on the way to the airport so that no one would forget and miss their flight. "Now, does everyone have their boarding pass?"

"I do." "Yes, mom." I got mine, Mrs. Benson." Spencer, Freddie and Carly respectively all answered at once.

"I don't have mine," Sam said, tying to hold a snicker back, and failing miserably.

Marissa scowled at the short blond girl as she said, "Very funny Samantha. You're not coming with us so you don't need a boarding pass." She quickly turned and made for the gate to the loading ramp.

"I'll miss you Sam," Carly said, giving her friend a last, brief hug. "I'll call when we get to the house.

"You'd better," Sam threatened, "or I'll just have ta hitchhike down there and make sure you do."

"No more games of Boomba," Freddie playfully admonished Sam as he hugged the blond girl. "If you do, Detective David Vega of the L.A.P.D. vowed to put a nation-wide, all-points bulletin out on you."

"I'll remember that," Sam laughed as she returned the brief embrace, pounding a bit too hard on Freddie's back. "But you just need to remember to be faster on the draw next time."

"I'll work on it," Freddie laughed and stepped back next to his girlfriend.

"I'll see ya around when I see ya around, kiddo," Spencer said as he hugged his sister's best girl friend who was almost like another sister to him since Sam had spent practically every afternoon and weekend in the apartment for the last few years.

"Sell allot a sculptures so you all can come up and visit us," Sam quietly whispered in his ear. "And don't forget to send a case of Fat Cakes for my birthday and Christmas."

"Wouldn't you rather have a Christmas ham instead?" Spencer joked as he moved back to stand next to his sister and her boyfriend.

"I told you I already got a direct link to the source," Sam jibed back, waving them on to catch their flight.

The three bade their final farewells then turned and quickly made their way to the dwindling line to board the plane.

Pam Puckett, quiet up until that point, draped an arm over her daughter's shoulder and asked, "Are you sure you wanna stay here in Seattle? We could probably get you into that school Carly and Freddie are enrolled in, no problem. You could always dance for your audition."

"I'm sure, mom," Sam said as she waved to Carly who was the last of the foursome to disappear beyond the gate door. "As much as I'll miss Carly and Freddie, it's time to look to the future. And my future is here in Seattle with Juan."

"You got it, kiddo," Pam said, steering her daughter back toward her car in the short term parking lot and the brief ride home.

Xxxxxx

The two and a half hour flight went fairly quickly. There wasn't enough time for a movie or even food to be served, although the Air Hostesses (formerly know as Stewardesses) did come by selling drinks once before they quickly returned to pick them up again so no trash would be loose in the cabin during the landing.

Carly and Freddie sat together reviewing all the comments on the website regarding their last web broadcast. Well, at least until a Hostess came by and told them to shut off all electronic devices. Mrs. Benson spent most of the time rummaging through her emergency medical kit in her carry-on bag, making sure she had enough bandages and other medical supplies just in case the plane crashed. Spencer spent his time during the short flight doodling on a sketch pad, drawing inspiration from the other passengers.

As they climbed aboard the shuttle bus that would take them directly to the house, Carly finally had to ask, "Mrs. Benson. Why did we land in Burbank instead of L.A.X.?"

"That's very simple, Carlotta," the redheaded nurse answered. "There's more air traffic at L.A.X. which means there's a bigger chance of a mid-air collision there. And besides, this airport is much closer to Hollywood than L.A.X., so we'll be at the house much faster."

"Okay," Carly shrugged at the roundabout logic of Mrs. Benson's answer. She knew the airfare was a lot more expensive flying in to the smaller airport since she and Freddie had book the seats on the web, but if it meant the woman was more at ease with the flight, then so be it.

"And Carlotta?" Mrs. Benson said with a kind smile. "Remember? I told you that you could call me Marissa."

During the the bus ride to Hollywood they passed by Universal Studios. Carly immediately wanted to take the world famous tour but knew she'd have to wait until after they'd all settled in to their new home. Freddie whispered in her ear that he wanted to take the tour too and vowed they would do so as soon as they had some free time.

They arrived at Cassie's house just as the huge moving van pulled up so there wasn't any time to sit down for a few minutes before they started directing the movers as to which room each box was to go to.

Carly was able to call Sam between helping the movers with her stuff but had to cut the call short. She soon realized that her new bedroom wouldn't be able to hold one quarter of her personal things, so she had to really concentrate as to which boxes would go to the room and which would be placed in the basement rec room.

Spencer was having a much more difficult time directing traffic. Another smaller moving truck had showed up to ferry his art object from the Seattle truck to the gallery in Beverly Hills. (While also directing his personal items to his and Cassie's bedroom.)

It took a couple of hours, but finally the large moving truck was empty and the smaller truck left with Spencer to deliver his art to the gallery. (Where Cassie was also waiting to greet the lanky artist properly.)

Freddie and Carly were about to flop down on his bed to rest for a few minutes, but they were interrupted by his mother. Mrs. Benson wanted to make sure they knew precisely where the hospital was. Well, that was her main reason for rousing them for a nice little walk. She also wanted to see her new place of employment first hand and get the personnel paperwork out of the way so she could start bright and early Monday morning.

Carly was a little surprised when Freddie brought along one of the smaller moving boxes on their six block walk to the hospital but she trusted Freddie to tell her about it when he was good and ready. The box didn't seem to weigh very much, Freddie easily carried it on the short journey, but she was still curious.

When they arrived at Cedar-Sinai Hospital, Freddie assured his mother that he and Carly could easily find their way if an emergency arose, and that they were going back to the house taking a different route. When Marissa balked at the notion of being separated from her son, Freddie reasoned that they should know at least two different routes in case the primary one was somehow blocked. Mrs. Benson accepted his reasoning as being prudent and bid them good-bye, saying she'd be back at the house in a few hours after the paperwork and tour were complete.

Freddie, without telling Carly exactly where they were going, led his girlfriend over a few blocks before entering a strange little shop.

"Why are we in a collectables shop?" Carly questioned as she glanced around at all of the comic books, baseball cards, action figures and other geeky things she had absolutely no interest in. She knew Freddie had a few Galaxy Wars figures and other collectables, but she didn't think he would want to buy anything to add to his collection just yet.

"Well, it's a thirty minute trip by city bus from our new home to Hollywood Arts High School," Freddie said as he led her up to the counter and gently placed the box on it. "That's with one transfer where we'll have to wait for five or ten minute for the next bus. Don't you think there's a better way to get to school a lot faster?"

"Yeah, but," Carly agreed, but didn't fathom were he was going with this line of thought. "I guess the only way for us to get to school any faster is if we drove ourselves."

"Precisely," Freddie said as he greeted the guy behind the counter, a typical stoner-type, high school dropout. He turned to the long-haired, freaky looking guy and said, "I'm looking to unload some of my things and I understand from your website that you buy."

"That we do, my man," the early twenty-something stoner said with a wicked smile. "What'cha got in the box?"

"Well," Freddie said, drawing out the suspense as he slowly lifted the top off the box, "how would you like to be the proud owner of a Galaxy Wars movie prop phaser... that actually _works?"_

"Whoa, dude," the guy marveled as Freddie pulled an identical model of Gibby's toy phaser from the box and showed it to him. "You say it really works?"

Carly immediately recognized the weapon, considering it had burned a hole in the glass window of her back hallway door, _twice,_ when Gibby owned it. She had to ask, "How did you get that away from Gibby? I thought it blew up?"

"His did," Freddie answered with a sly smile. "I was able to buy _another_ one from the movie and made the same repairs I did to his, except I also fixed _this_ one so it _can't_ overload and explode."

"Com'on man," the stoner whined impatiently. "I gotta see it in action."

"Okay, keep your shirt on," Freddie berated the guy. He spotted a sixteen ounce Peppy Cola bottle that was half full down at the other end of the counter. He pointed to it and asked, "Can you empty that soda bottle down there? I don't want to splash soda all over your merchandise."

"No problemo," the stoner said as he walked down, took the bottle off the counter, ducked down for a second and quickly came back up with three empty bottles. He explained, "I drink this stuff all day long so there's always empties lying around." He lined the three containers across the counter and stepped back. "Fire away, dude."

Freddie made sure there wasn't anything valuable on the wall behind his target before he raised the weapon in a shooter's stance and fired a five second burst. The middle one of the three bottles was lanced by the teal colored light and simply exploded, knocking the outer two bottles to the side.

"Whoa, dude," the stoner marveled as he shot a few quick glances between Freddie and where the bottle used to be. "That. Was. _Awesome!_" He quickly came back to where Freddie and Carly were standing and tentatively asked, "Are you sure you wanna part with it?"

"Yes, I'm sure" Freddie sighed. He really didn't want to sell the one-of-a-kind laser, but he knew he and Carly really needed a car to get around L.A. in, like he'd hinted to her earlier. That meant they needed money to buy it and to pay for the gas, maintenance and insurance that would also be needed.

"Uh, what do you want for it?" the guy asked, not really caring what Freddie would quote as a price. He just _had_ to have that weapon. "We pay top dollar for only the best stuff, man, and that's the best I ever seen."

"Well," Freddie said, scratching his chin in mock thought. He'd already gone on line and found out that this was one of only five phasers used in the movie. (Four now that Gibby's had blown up.) So that made it valuable. His modifications made it unique. "Since it's one of only four laser pistols used in the movies..."

"You mean _five,"_ the guy quickly corrected. "There were five prop lasers used in the Galaxy Wars movies."

"No, I mean _four,"_ Freddie shook his head. "One was destroyed a year ago when it blew up due to some faulty modifications. We were there when it happened," Freddie said, indicating himself and Carly.

"Yes we were," Carly quickly added, shuddering at the thought about how they were almost caught in the blast. "It _definitely_ blew up."

"Oh. Okay," the stoner quickly ceded.

"As I was saying. This is one of four prop pistols and the only one that's been modified to really shoot. Now, I did the modifications myself and made sure this one won't overload like the other one did. Since it's so unique, I think it should have a very unique price."

"And that would be...?"

"I think maybe around one hundred thousand dollars," Freddie said, trying to keep a straight face. He knew he could probably sell it for a lot more if he could ever find the right collector but he didn't want to spend the hours, days or maybe even months trying to track down that certain individual. A shop like this might have a few leads to make a quick sale and turn a profit. He also knew the guy behind the counter might balk at such a steep price and only offer him a few thousand dollars.

"Whoa, dude," the stoner said, scratching his head. "I dunno man, that's a lot of bread. I could maybe offer you... fifty thou?"

"I know you need to make a profit," Freddie said, knowing full well his initial offer would be turned down and a counter offer of at most _half_ his quote would be made. That was usually how this kind of deal operated. But he also knew how to play the game. So he said, "I think you probably know of a few collectors around Hollywood who would pay _twice_ what I'm asking for, maybe even a lot more. It just a matter of finding the right buyer."

"That's true, man," the guy said, still scratching his head.

Both Carly and Freddie knew the shop employee, if he wasn't the owner, was running through all the names of collectors he could think of who'd be interested in this one-of-a-kind item. Carly quickly said, "And while you wait to get such an offer, you could always set up a shooting gallery for people to fire the laser thingie. You could charge them one hundred dollars a shot, or maybe more."

"Whoa, yeah!" The guy quickly caught on and added, "That'd also get the word out on the street that we have an actual prop from the movie that works. Man, dude, you got a smart girlfriend."

"I know," Freddie smugly said, turned and gave Carly a quick, congratulatory kiss on the lips for the idea. He turned back to the guy and asked, "So... one hundred thou?"

"One hundred K," the stoner quickly said, reaching out and shaking Freddie's hand, a huge smile on his face. "Now, what else do ya got in the box?"

Xxxxxx

Carly was absolutely ecstatic as she and Freddie left the collectables shop. It had taken an extra thirty minutes for the stoner to call someone and arrange for the payment, but they walked out of the shop with a certified bank draft for one hundred thousand, five hundred dollars.

"I think we fried his brain with the laser," Freddie joked as he pocketed the rectangular piece of paper. "The rest of my collection wasn't worth one _fifth_ of what he paid for it. But they'll probably make it up, and more, when they sells the phaser."

"Is it really worth that much?" Carly begged, latching onto Freddie's arm as they walked back toward the house. "I mean it's just a toy that was used in a movie."

Freddie sadly shook his head and said, "He may only find buyers that would pay twenty or thirty thousand, but if the right person came along, that prop could be worth upwards of half a million dollars. That's the way the collectables market operates. People will pay what they think it's worth to them."

"So, why didn't you hold out for more or look for that special buyer?"

"Well, I _could_ have done either of those two thing..." Freddie answered as they stopped in front of a bank. Fortunately it was a branch of the same national bank chain that they all used up in Seattle, so his account should've been transferred to this branch, "... but I didn't want to waste the time or the energy searching out the right person or haggling over a larger sum. I actually thought I wouldn't get more than ten or twenty thousand dollars for it. I just threw out the hundred grand figure to see where he stood."

"Wow," Carly marveled at Freddie's gumption as they entered the bank and walked up to one of the ladies who was sitting at a desk in the outer edge of the room.

"Hi, may I help you?" the blond-haired lady, whose name plate on the desk read Helen Schroeder, blandly asked. She was clearly uninterested in helping anyone on a Saturday so close to closing time. She obviously wanted to be anywhere but at work.

"Yes you can, Ms. Schroeder," Freddie said with a bright smile as he handed over the bank draft. "I'd like to make sure my account transferred down from Seattle and deposit this."

"You can check with one of the tellers," Helen said, pointing to the regular teller windows before she looked at the check in her hand. She slowly stood up, her eye opening wide and her jaw dropping in astonishment. "Um, on second thought, I think I'll get the manager." She handed the check back to Freddie and quickly scurried off.

Xxxxxx

"Well that was fun," Carly laughed as she and Freddie left the bank and she flipped through one of the two wall calendars in her hands.

"Yes it was," Freddie replied as he examined the box he was carrying. In it was a deluxe toaster that the bank manager gave him, along with the calendars, for making such a large deposit. "Now, when should we go car shopping?"

Xxxxxx

Author' Note: Does anyone recognize the flight, concourse and gate number from when they left Seattle? You probably should if you're a avid fan of the show.

I'll also state here that I'm not going to differentiate between Hollywood and _West_ Hollywood, two separate but adjoining cities. Cedar-Sinai and Cassie's house would be located in West Hollywood while the high school is in Hollywood proper. Just to let you know.


	9. Cars and Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **iCarly **and **Victorious** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 9

Cars and Secrets

Xxxxxx

"In five, four, three..."

"Freddie!" Carly Shay shouted. She blissfully writhed and moaned out as her lover let loosed his seed into the man-made protection.

"Sorry, Carly," Freddie Benson panted out as they both came down from their shared orgasms. "But you told me you wanted to know when I... you know. And just yelling out 'I'm gonna cum' is kinda crass and cliche."

"I know, Freddie," Carly cooed as they snuggled together in post coital splendor. She giggled as she explained, "But now I won't be able to start an iCarly show without thinking about what we just did."

"Oh, well I'd just _hate_ for _that_ to happen," Freddie playfully chided before they started kissing again.

The two teens were just settled in to take a post-coitus nap when Freddie suddenly shot up in bed and gasped, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Carly sleepily asked, trying to pull her lover/boyfriend/fiancé back down to snuggle some more.

"Freddie!" the voice came again from downstairs and was immediately recognized by both teens. "I'm home!"

"Your mom!" Carly squeaked and bolted out of Freddie's bed. She rapidly grabbed her clothes from the floor and nakedly dashed out the door toward her own bedroom.

Freddie quickly got redressed, grabbed the disinfectant spray his mother always had him keep by the bed and sprayed himself down to hopefully eliminate the smell of sex on his body. With that done, he quickly ran down the stairs to greet his mother.

"Freddie, there you are," Marissa said when she saw her son coming down the stairs two at a time. She berated him, "Slow down before you trip and fall down the staircase and break your neck."

"Hi mom," Freddie greeted as he immediately slowed to take the last five stairs at a normal pace. "How did you like Cedar-Sinai?"

"Oh, it's marvelous," Mrs. Benson gushed as she removed her jacket and draped it over a chair in the living room before sitting down. "They actually have _five_ different facilities all within a few blocks of one-another, ranging from the hospital and medical center to a few research buildings. Why, the hospital itself has over nine hundred fifty bed."

"No. Really?" Freddie feigned interest, hoping to distract his mother for a few more minutes to allow Carly to be able to get dressed and come down unnoticed. He really didn't want his mother to question him about just _why_ he and Carly were both upstairs in the afternoon.

"That's true," Marissa said as she settled into the high back chair. "And you were right about celebrities using the facilities. Why, I got to see the rooms where Don Knotts, Johnny Carson and Frank Sinatra passed away in."

"Wow, that's fascinating," the brown-haired boy fake-fawned over his mother's recounting of her visit to her new job, even though he didn't recognize two of the names. Freddie knew who Frank Sinatra was only because Marissa liked to listen to Ol' Blue-Eye's' music every once in a while. The other two names _sounded_ familiar, but he couldn't place them.

"Good afternoon, Marissa," Carly chimed, primly standing in the doorway as if she'd just poofed into existence there. She looked perfectly normal with her hair unmussed and dressed in the skirt and shirt she had on earlier. "How was your visit to the hospital? Did you get all of your paperwork settled?" Carly walked over and stood next to Freddie, taking his hand in hers. He let out a relieved breath when he could smell her perfume, so he knew Carly had been smart enough to wash up a bit and add the floral scent to cover up the smell of sex on her.

"Yes, I got that _all_ taken care of," Marissa sighed as if doing the paperwork for the personnel department at the hospital had been a Herculean task. "But I was about to tell Freddie that I might have to purchase a car even though it's only a few blocks to walk to work. I was told that the rains during the winter months can get quite heavy at times, which sometimes lead to the sewer system backing up."

"I've heard that too," Freddie said as he led Carly over to sit down on the couch facing his mother to have this particular conversation. They had talked on the way home from the bank about what kind of vehicle they'd like to buy and how to broach the subject with his mother, and this was the perfect opportunity. "And that's something I..." he looked over to his girlfriend/fiancée and squeezed her hand, "... I mean _we_ wanted to talk to you about."

"Do you think you'll need a car too?" Mrs. Benson begged, slightly confused. "I thought you told me that the city bus system would be all you'd ever need to travel to and from school and such?"

"We thought so at first," Carly piped in, hoping to show a united front in their cause. "But it's three blocks to the nearest bus stop and there's a ten to fifteen minute wait when we transfer to the north-bound bus when going to Hollywood Arts. If it's raining out, we'd both be drenched by the time we arrived at school."

"And you _know_ some of the riders will be sneezing and coughing the whole way," Freddie quickly added, hoping to play on his mother's fear of germs and him getting sick.

"Yes, that's all true," Marissa sighed. "I guess we didn't think through the whole getting to school thing. But I don't think we have enough money to buy _two_ cars. I suppose I _could_ drop you off on my way to work... that's _if_ I'm assigned to a normal daytime schedule."

"You don't need to buy a car for me and Carly," Freddie said, thanking his lucky star that his mom took the bait. Now he only needed to reel her in and seal the deal. "I have plenty of money to buy one and pay for insurance and gas, too."

"Oh, Freddie," Mrs. Benson pouted since she had an pretty good idea of what he was probably talking about. She and Freddie had set aside his Daka TechFoot settlement money in a special savings account to use for college. "You shouldn't dip into your college funds. You'll need that in a year or two."

"I don't need to touch my college account," Freddie assured her. "When we left the hospital, Carly and I went to one of the collectable stores nearby and I sold my collection of Galaxy Wars action figures and things. What I got for them was _way _more than enough to buy a car."

"Are you sure?" the redheaded woman asked in disbelief. "I didn't think you had more than a few hundred dollars worth of toys. That's not enough to buy a decent car, let alone insure it. And gas is sooo expensive nowadays."

"I'm positive, mom," Freddie lightly laughed and Carly giggled along with him. "One of the things I sold turned out to be _extremely_ rare, one of a kind. I got enough from it to pay for everything. See." He didn't want to reveal just how much he'd received from the collectables shop but knew his mother would continue to pester him until she was satisfied, so he pulled out the deposit slip and showed her.

"You received over one hundred thousand dollars for your toys?" Marissa marveled in astonishment when she saw the deposit from today.

"Yes, mom," Freddie lightly chuckled. "I figure Carly and I can buy a car, pay for the insurance and have enough left over to even put some of it in my college fund while still paying for the gas and other expenses."

"Maybe we can even start looking for a ring," Carly whispered to her beau, causing both of them to laugh out loud.

"Not until I ask the Colonel for your hand, first," Freddie whispered back.

Either their whispers were too loud or the acoustics in the room were excellent, because Marissa smiled at the couple and asked, "Are you two already thinking about buying an engagement ring?"

"If you remember," Carly said with a wane smile and blush to her cheeks, "I did kinda let it slip out that I already thought about him that way when Freddie was injured by Sam."

"Yes you did," Mrs. Benson answered as she warily peered at the two seventeen year olds. "But I think you're getting ahead of yourselves. You're only Juniors in high school so you shouldn't be thinking about marriage for at least another four or five years. Not until you're almost out of college."

"That's true," Carly ceded, but pressed the matter further. "But if we know we're going to get married in the future, shouldn't I advertise it by wearing an engagement ring? Neither of us mind if it's a long engagement but I'd like to somehow show people that we're both off the market until we're ready to walk down the aisle."

Mrs. Benson sat there in the chair, slowly nodding as she thought about the situation. After twenty or thirty loooong seconds, at least to Carly they were long, Marissa finally turned to the two teens and said, "I think you're right, Carlotta. But I also think you should talk to Spencer, Cassandra and your father to find out what they think before taking this next step."

"That's what I just told Carls," Freddie said, his smile amping up a bit. "I'd like to discuss it with the Colonel and ask him for Carly's hand in marriage."

"That's an excellent plan," Melissa said with a approving nod. "Why don't you call him right now?"

"Well," Freddie started as he pulled his PearPhone out of his pocket, checked the time and did some quick calculations, "It's just after six o'clock right now. That means it's only four AM in Florence, Italy so he's probably asleep. What I _could_ do is send him an e-mail and find out when a good time to call would be."

"Let's do that right now," Carly enthused as she practically jumped up off the couch and headed for the stairs up to Freddie's room.

"We could," Freddie balked as he stood up, but pointed toward the kitchen. "But somebody needs to start dinner soon. Spence and Cassie will be home in an hour."

"I'll start dinner," Marissa announced as she got up out of the chair and headed for the kitchen. "I still need to unpack some of my kitchen utensils, anyway. You two go ahead and send the e-mail and then come back down and help me in the kitchen."

"Um, what were you thinking of making?" Freddie tentatively asked his mother, fearing that whatever she cooked would be nutritious but not very tasty.

"I don't know what's in the refrigerator," Marissa said as she stopped in the doorway and ponder what possible kinds of food she would fine in Cassandra's kitchen. She knew the redheaded owner of the house usually dressed like a hippy from the 60's, so it could either be a lot of junk food or something totally organic.

"I think Spencer and Cassie were planning on spaghetti tacos, tonight," Carly piped in from the foot of the staircase, hoping to persuade her future mother-in-law with a fun meal. "They're easy to make and have all of the food groups included in them."

"Yeah, mom," Freddie jumped in with Carly's idea. "Your fruit and vegetable group is cover by the tomatoes in the sauce, and the pasta and taco shells make up the breads and grains group. Spencer usually puts a little ground beef in his sauce for the meat group, and we add cheese for the dairy group."

"And we always have a nice garden salad to really boost the amount of vegetables we have for the food pyramid," Carly said as she came back over and stood beside her boyfriend.

"That sounds _extremely_ healthy," Marissa said in amazement, thinking about the food pyramid and how everything in a spaghetti taco fit it. "Why haven't you told me about this before, Freddie?"

"Well, Marissa," Carly answered for her boyfriend, wanting to take the blame for eating something that didn't sound very healthy. "I thought you mind think of it as merely fast food and it wouldn't be nutritious enough to eat."

"Nonsense, Carlotta," Mrs. Benson pshaw'ed the young brunette girl. "A taco is one of the most nutritious meals around. Just think about it. It has meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato, all on a corn tortilla. This is even more nutritious since you're cutting back on the meat and adding more vegetables with the salad."

Carly thought about it for a few seconds and it suddenly hit her. "Whoa, you're right. I never thought about it that way."

Marissa took the girl's arm and escorted her toward the kitchen while saying to her son, "Freddie, you go ahead and send off the e-mail to Carly's father while we start dinner."

"You got it, mom," Freddie laughed, shook his head at the irony of the whole situation then headed up to his bedroom where his laptop was.

Xxxxxx

Because Mrs. Benson made the spaghetti tacos, they turned out pretty good. Because Carly _helped_ by added a few extra spices that Marissa didn't think were necessary, the meal tasted excellent.

During the mealtime conversation, Cassie informed the two Bensons and the younger Shay that, for some strange reason, Spencer's art pieces were selling like hotcakes today. He had sold three sculptures and the shop had had more than a dozen calls wondering if the rumors were true; That the gallery had works by _the_ _famous_ Spencer Shay from Seattle.

The reason came to light just before the gallery closed. It seems that the Seattle art critic, Harry Joyner, had written an article lamenting Spencer's move to Los Angeles, saying it was a huge loss to the Seattle art community, and that the article had somehow been picked up by the Los Angles Times newspaper and published that day in the Art section.

Of course Cassie had picked up the newspaper on the way home and the article was passed around the table, much to Marissa's dismay. She didn't like people reading at the table. She considered it to be rude and possibly unsanitary. (You never knew where that newspaper had been and who-knows-_what_ type of ink had been used to print it.)

The other topic of conversation at the dinner table was where to buy a car. (Or two.) Cassie didn't know very many auto dealers and the ones she did know all did business in Beverly Hills, and only dealt in luxury vehicles.

Carly suggested that they check with Tori. Either she or one of her Hollywood Arts friends might know a reputable dealer.

The call was made after the dinner dishes were washed and dried. The younger Vega sister (well actually Trina was thinking of changing her name back to Marx because it has a history in Hollywood and she thought it could benefit her career,) hadn't even thought about purchasing a car yet, not having her drivers license, but said she would check with her friends. And as a matter of fact, she and Shelby were going to meet her friends later at Karaoke Dokie, and invited everyone along.

Everyone in the Peterson/Shay/Benson household were psyched about the outing, except Marissa. She excused herself from the outing, saying she was tired from the long day and just wanted to watch a little television before heading off to bed.

Xxxxxx

Karaoke Dokie wasn't too crowed when Carly, Freddie, Spencer and Cassie arrived. Carly immediately spotted the six students from Hollywood Arts and their guest sitting at two tables that'd been shoved together with extra seats ready for the two couples to occupy.

"Carly... Freddie," Shelby greeted them as they arrived at the tables and sat down. Introductions were made since André Harris hadn't met the group before. Jade, Cat and Cassie started to talk about the different plays that were coming up at school. Beck sat in on their conversation but kept quiet. André asked Spencer about the article in the paper and Robbie joined that conversation while Carly and Freddie went up to the counter and got drinks for the gang. (Tori and Shelby were still trading stories of past events in their separated lives.)

As Carly and Freddie arrived back at the table, all of the conversations were interrupted when a U.S. Army Major walked in to the club, looked around and immediately marched up to the group followed by two very mean looking M.P.s escorting Freddie's mother. Before the Major could speak, Marissa threw her arms around her son and yelled, "I'm not letting them take you away. You're too young to be in the Army."

"What's going on, mom?" Freddie questioned as the Army Officer stepped over and observed the mother/son scene.

"Are you Fredward Benson?" the Major practically growled at the brown-eyed boy.

"Yes Sir, I am," Freddie said as he extracted himself from his mothers tight, over protective grip and stood from his chair.

"I need to talk to you, son..." he warily eyed the others around the table before adding, _"...Alone._ It's top secret, a matter of national security."

"What's this all about, Major... um... Dean?" Spencer asked as he stood and tried to step between Freddie and the Major, noticing the officer's name tag which read Maj. James Dean. (Spencer _soooo_ wanted to make a joke about crashing sports cars or making pork sausage, but the two M.P.s looked mean enough to rip his arms off so he held his tongue.)

"As I said," the Major shot Spencer a nasty glare which backed the artist off a step, "it's a matter of national security. It concerns a... _special_ item Mr. Benson recently sold. We shouldn't be too long."

Freddie narrowed his eyes at the major and asked, "Do you mean the-" Major Dean abruptly cut him off.

"You're not to talk to _anyone_ about the item, except me. Understood? No one else is suppose to know about the object you sold this afternoon until I say so."

"Carly knows," Freddie said as he wrapped his arm protectively around her shoulder. "She was with me this afternoon when I sold... _it._ Should she be in on our conversation too?"

The Major shot a glance at the young brunette and paused for just a second before he gruffly said, "Yes, she'll need to come too. Let's step outside to my vehicle where we can have some privacy."

"I said you're not taking my son away," Marissa Benson said as she grabbed Freddie's arm again to prevent him from leaving.

"Mom, it'll be okay," Freddie turned and assured his mother, gently removing her hands from his arm. "I think I know what he wants to discuss and I'm _not_ in any trouble. Just stay here with Spence and Cassie and we'll be back in a few minutes."

Major Dean nodded to the two M.P.s then turned and walked out of the club. Carly latched onto Freddie's arm and they followed.

"Do you know what item they're talking about?" Spencer asked Mrs. Benson.

"I'm not sure," Marissa answered, trying to think back to when she'd gotten home from visiting the Hospital. "All I know is Freddie made a deposit for just over one hundred thousand dollars after he sold some of his Galaxy Wars toys this afternoon."

"Galaxy War toys?" Robbie incredulously asked. "Whoa. They musta been one of a kind."

Rex turned his head to Robbie and snidely stated, "Like any of the dolls you have from those lame movies would be worth anything."

"They're not dolls," the curly-haired boy defensively howled at the jibe. "They're collectable action figures."

"That _you_ dress up in frilly clothes that you _make _yourself," Rex defiantly shot back.

Outside the club, the Major, Freddie and Carly all got into the back of the desert camouflage painted Hum Vee and the Major turned on the overhead light. He turned to Freddie and incredulously begged, "So you're the one who modified the movie phaser and made it work? You can't be more than sixteen, seventeen years old."

"I'm seventeen, Sir," Freddie wryly smiled. "And this was the _second_ phaser I'd altered, so it was easy. The hard part was finding and buying the second one to work on since there were only five phasers to begin with."

"Yes, well," the Major said, scratching his head. "It's some amazing work. But we need your expertise to try and reproduce it for our military. We were hoping you'd come in sometime soon and assist our scientists."

"You want to use Freddie's phaser for the army?" Carly queried in surprise. "Doesn't the government have like a gazillion scientists working on lasers and stuff that are bigger and better?"

"Our scientists and developers _are_ making progress on certain laser weaponry," the Major ceded, "but they haven't come up with anything _close_ to the compact size Mr. Benson's design encompasses. That's why we need his help. They've tried to reproduce it but can't get their models to work."

"What don't they understand?" Freddie asked. "I mean, it's all there in the patent I file a few weeks ago."

"Wait," Carly said, grabbing Freddie's arm and pulling him around to face her. "You filed a patent?"

Major Dean answered for Freddie, "It was the prudent thing to do, Miss Shay. And yes, we know your name, and the names of all your friends. Anyway, when the patent was filed we were immediately notified because the phaser could be considered a potential weapon that could be used against our country and/or its citizens. The patent was immediately deleted from all public records but it's still in your name, Mr. Benson, and any royalties made by it would still go to you. We would've contacted you sooner but it took some time to locate and contact you during your recent trip and subsequent move."

"Okay, so I guess you want me to meet with your guys sometime in the near future," Freddie said, trying to come up with a plan of action. "When would you like that to happen? Carly and I will start attending Hollywood Arts High on Monday."

"We'll try to work around your school schedule," the Major said as he pulled a briefcase from the front seats onto his lap and opened it. He got two documents out of the case and handed one each to Carly and Freddie. "In the meantime, I need you two to sign these. They're confidentiality agreements. They state that you'll be arrested and incarcerated for treason if you talk to _anyone_ about the phaser."

"Yeesh!" Carly grimaced as she glanced over the small print of the document. "You guys are serious, aren't you?"

"As I said inside," the Major monotoned, a serious look on his face. "This is a matter of _national_ security. I'm sure your father, a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, would agree Miss Shay. We in the military take our country's security _very_ seriously."

"You're right," Carly sighed as she accepted a pen from the Major and signed where indicated. "Dad would _definitely_ agree."

"What about the phaser I sold this afternoon?" Freddie questioned as he signed his paperwork and handed everything back to the Major. "If you want it to be a secret, you'd better get that one out of circulation, too."

"I've already confiscated it," the Major reassured the teen couple. "And don't worry. The store owner is more than happy with the compensation he received for turning it over to the government."

When Carly and Freddie reenter Karaoke Dokie, the two M.P.s, who had positioned themselves at the front entrance to the club to prevent _anyone_ from leaving, turned and exited the building.

The teen couple was immediately inundated by questions from their friends and family about what'd happened, what the object in question was and why the military was interested in Freddie.

Carly held up her hands to stop the questioning and said, "As the Major said, it's a matter of nation security and we can't talk about it. If we do, Freddie and I would be shot on sight so we can't answer _any_ questions."

"Well," Mrs. Benson let out an agitated breath, "I suppose since you're both alright and we don't _have_ to know. But how am I suppose to get home now? That Major practically dragged me out of the house, taking me away from my favorite TV show, and drove me here."

"Yes, you still need to buy a car," Freddie said, being distracted from his 'interview' with the Major and reminded of their need for transportation. "And Carly and I need one, too."

Cat immediately jumped to her feet and said, "My uncle owns a car dealership. I'm sure he'd give you a great deal and he's open tomorrow."

"That's all well and good, Cat," Tori said to her cherry-topped friend, "but Mrs. Benson need to get home right now."

"Oh, well then I don't think my uncle can help," Cat dejectedly frowned, plopping back down in her chair.

"We'll see your uncle tomorrow, Cat," Freddie told his new friend and classmate as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and got a few bills out. He handed them to his mother and said, "But for now, why don't you take a cab."

"I could always take her home," Cassie volunteered.

"No," Carly said, making sure the redhead didn't stand up by placing her hand on Cassie's shoulder. "You and Spence are celebrating selling some of his art work."

"Carlotta is absolutely correct, Cassandra," Marissa said, standing up and pocketing the money. "I can take a cab." She glanced around the club and asked, "Now, does anyone know the telephone number for one?"

"I'll call," Cassie volunteered, taking her phone out of her pocket.

"Just make sure to ask that it's a _clean_ one."

"One time," Cat said with a slight smile and giggle, "my brother took a cab... But they made him give it back."


	10. Jade's Personality

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious **and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 10

Jade's Personality

Xxxxxx

**Sunday Morning**

Wanting enough sturdy metal around her for protection in case of an auto accident, Mrs. Marissa Benson opted to buy a two year old, used, black-hued town car from Cat's uncle. (Getting a very good deal in the bargain.)

Carly and Freddie didn't have as many concerns regarding what kind of vehicle to purchase so they bought a brand new, full-sized, extended cab pick up truck. There was enough room in the back seat for at least three of their new friends to catch a ride if needed and the truck bed would come in handy if Freddie ever wanted to haul any audio/video equipment or props and set pieces for the movies he and Carly would need to shoot during some of their classes at Hollywood Arts.

Freddie and Carly also knew that they'd have to keep the vehicle for quite a few years since they'd wouldn't be able to buy something else until after college.

After insuring the vehicles on-line, the teen couple spent the rest of Sunday unpacking and setting up the rec room down in the basement. Of course when they finally managed to maneuver one of the heavier pieces of furniture into position they just had to stop and take a short break... and the breaks always consisted of a ten or fifteen minute make out session.

When Carly and Freddie had finally finished they went upstairs and found Cassie and Spencer already home from the art gallery.

"I sold _four_ more pieces today," Spencer proudly exclaimed without so much as a hello, "and got _two_ new commissions. How about them apples!"

"That's great, Spence," Carly enthused and hugged her brother in congratulations. "What kind of commissions are they?"

"Well, one is suppose to be a ten foot tall metal palm tree that lights up for Christmas and the other is a series of lawn sculptures depicting wildlife from the northwest. I already got the Beavcoon started."

Before Carly could voice her concerns, Cassie spoke up and said, "I've already contacted a friend who'll help Spence with the wiring for the lights so the Christmas tree _won't_ burst into flames."

"I'm not _that_ bad with wiring," Spencer defensively protested.

"Yes you are, you big lunk," Cassie cooed to her beau as she wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a brief but passionate peck on the lips. "Your reputation proceeds you. I've heard plenty of stories about your work bursting into flames from my friends up in Seattle, and I've also heard that the fire department up there has a special code assigned specifically for _your_ apartment."

"Need I remind you," Carly said, playfully jabbing her brother in the ribs, "that you _roller_ _blades_ cause on fire after you fixed them?"

"Your roller blades?" Cassie let out a huge laugh that had her collapsing and rolling on the floor, not having heard about that incident before.

"Yeah, well..." Spencer sighed in defeat. "At least the roasted hot dogs tasted good."

"Don't worry about it Spence," Freddie tried to console his girlfriend's brother. "With someone helping out with the wiring, you can spend more time working on the other commissions."

"You're absolutely right," Spencer said, feeling a lot better about the situation. "I'm gonna be very busy working on the other things."

"Plus it'll help keep our fire insurance rates down," Cassie playfully teased her lover as he helped her up off the floor.

Xxxxxx

**Monday Morning**

Freddie and Carly stood at the edge of the Hollywood Arts High School parking lot gawking at all of the students dancing, singing, playing their musical instruments or just generally talking in small groups around the Asphalt Cafe. They both felt sooo out of place.

"Well?" Carly anxiously said, bracing herself for the start of school in a new city.

"Yeah, well?" Freddie echoed, also nervous. He slipped an arm around his girlfriend's waist in support and started to walk her onto the school grounds.

A few of the boys and girls must have recognized the couple because Carly and Freddie were immediately surrounded by students asking them questions about the web show and requesting pictures and autographs.

Luckily, Jade West stepped in.

"One side people," the dark-haired, wanna-be actress/singer harshly yelled as she pushed her way through the crowd. "Move aside!" Jade stood beside the couple, stared down the crowd and hollered, "I'm only going to say this once. Carly and Freddie are new students here and you shouldn't bug them just because they had a little show on the internet. So leave them _alone._"

"Thanks Jade," Carly sighed in relief as the students quickly went back to what they'd been doing earlier. She'd had a moment of panic when the teen fans had surrounded her and Freddie clamoring for their attention, but Jade had scared them away. "I've never seen fans act like that before except when we attended Webicon a few years ago."

"Yeah? Well get used to it," Jade said as she sat down at one of the outdoor tables and took a sip of her Jet Brew coffee before continuing. "The students here loved your show so you're kinda famous. But those idiots were acting like they've never seen a celebrity before."

"May we sit for a minute?" Freddie politely asked. Jade simply gave a noncommittal shrug so the teen couple took that as a yes and sat down. The brown-haired former Seattle-ite observed, "You don't seem fazed by our notoriety."

"I've lived in L.A. all my life," Jade stated as if they should've known that. "If you get out at all you'll see plenty of celebrities around; At the movies, at restaurants and even out on the street. It's just a fact of life living here."

"I suppose it is," Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "Well, Carly and I need to head inside to get our schedules and locker assignments."

"Thanks again for shooing the autograph seekers away," Carly said with a warm smile. "We'll probably see you around."

"Whatever," Jade absently said, looking over her shoulder to the parking lot, obviously trying to find someone else to talk to, probably her boyfriend Beck.

The teen couple shared a disappointed glance from the obvious cold shoulder before they got up and headed inside. When they were far enough from the table to not be overheard, Freddie observed, "Well, she's a barrel of laughs. I wonder what's got her pretzel in a twist."

"I don't know," Carly said as she passed through the doorway Freddie had opened and held for her. "She acted the same way when we met her Saturday at Nozu and later at Karaoke Dokie. Maybe she just has a caustic attitude for some reason."

"What? You mean she may be trying to hide some kinda insecurity or something?" Freddie begged as they reached the high school office and paused outside the door to finish the conversation. "Or maybe she's just mad at the entire world for some reason."

"Or she acts that way to retain her spot as one of the alpha females here at school," Carly guessed with a shoulder shrug. "Who knows. It could even be a combination of those things, or something completely different."

"Well, we have a year and a half of school to figure it out," Freddie said as he took the doorknob in hand and opened the door. "But it seems as if all of the guys in their little group have something they're either hiding or is wrong with them. Cat is so childlike. Beck acts like a cool dude but you know something is simmering under that hair." He ticked off the teens with his fingers as he mentioned each of them. "André is either perky or else he's extremely moody, and we don't even have to mention Robbie and Rex."

"Yeah. They're all hiding something _except_ for Tori," Carly laughed as they went up to the front desk to get their schedules and lockers assignments.

Xxxxxx

As it always seems to happen in both good and bad fan fiction stories on the internet, Carly and Freddie's first period of the day was an acting class with Sikowitz. They found Cat, Robbie and André sitting together talking, with Jade and Beck cuddled up in two chairs beside the first small group. Tori was sitting behind Jade with her twin sister, Shelby, parked to one side of her.

"Hey Shelby," Carly greeted the Mixed Martial Arts Champion in surprise at seeing her here in school. "What are you doing in this class?"

"I'm trying to learn a little more about my sister's life," Shelby said to the teen couple. "And what better way than to sit in on her classes for a couple of days." She could just imagine the next question coming from Freddie and/or Carly so she stated, "I haven't been in a regular classroom setting for around five years or so. Normally, Rod has a tutor standing by to teach me between sparring sessions so it'll be interesting sitting in a normal classroom once again."

"As if this is supposed to be a _normal_ classroom setting," Freddie joked as he and Carly took seats next to the twins. "After meeting Sikowitz a week ago during our auditions, I don't think you can associate him and the word _normal_ in any context of the word."

"That is _soooo_ true," Tori huffed out, thinking about all the odd events that had gone on with that particular teacher over the past few years.

What seemed like forever past as they waited for class to begin. Suddenly Freddie's PearPhone rang. He checked the caller I.D. and said to Carly, "It's your dad." He quickly accepted the call, answering, "Hello Colonel."

"Say hi for me and tell him I send my love," Carly whispered in Freddie's free ear as he listened to his, hopefully, future father-in-law.

"No sir," Freddie said into his cellphone. "We're in class right now but the teacher hasn't shown up yet, so we can talk." He listened for a minute before he said, "No, Colonel. We don't think we're rushing into anything. As I said in my e-mail, we plan on waiting for at least a few years before getting married. We both just think it'd be a good idea to have some kind of visual proof for everyone to see and I came into some extra money this past weekend, so we wanted to buy our engagement and wedding rings now." Freddie smiled as he listened for a few more seconds. "Of course, Colonel. We'll keep you in the loop with any future developments concerning our relationship. Thanks for your blessing." He looked over to his girlfriend, smiled and gave her a reassuring wink. "Both Carls and I appreciate it and I think she wants to thank you, too."

Carly snatched the phone from her beau and joyously asked, "So it's okay if Freddie and I buy our rings and plan on getting married sometime during college?" She got up out of her seat and walked away to continue the conversation in private by the front door.

Just then, Erwin Sikowitz came in through the back hallway door to the classroom, clapped his hands and said, "Okay all you fine young actor-wannabes. Let's get started."

"I'm afraid not," Freddie said as he stood and picked up his backpack. "Class has been canceled."

"Oh?" Sikowitz begged in surprise. "I'm the teacher here and only _I_ can say when class is over."

"I'm afraid not," Freddie said as he got a pamphlet out of his backpack, thumbed though it to the page he was looking for and held it out for the balding teacher to see. "According to the student handbook, class is canceled if the teacher, or any other school official, doesn't show up within ten minutes of the bell that starts the class. You're over _fifteen_ minutes late. That means the class is over and we're free to do whatever we want until our next class."

When that realization sunk in, all of the students except for Freddie, Carly, André, Cat, Robbie, Jade, Beck, Tori (the usual gang) and Shelby swiftly left the room.

"Let me see that," Sikowitz angrily said, stomping barefoot over to the boy and snatching the booklet from his grasp. After reading the rule, he said, "Well I'll be a singing waiter at High School High. You're absolutely right."

"But he's always ten or fifteen minutes late," Robbie tried to rationalize the situation. "That just means the class is short and sweet."

"No," Freddie said. "That means he's simply being irresponsible in his duties. As a teacher, he's supposed to set a good example for his students. He's supposed to be punctual, prepared to teach the class and dressed appropriately."

The teens, less Carly who was still over by the front door talking to her father on the phone with one finger in her ear, took in Sikowitz's appearance. His hair was an absolute mess, he was wearing a loudly colored poet's shirt under an equally colorful yet clashing suede vest, gaudy parachute pants and nothing on his feet. (And don't forget the coconut with straw in his hand.)

"Well," André spoke up, hoping to justify the situation. "This is an acting class and things are a bit more relax around here."

Freddie chuckled and said, "Do you really think you'd get an acting role if you showed up at an audition fifteen minutes late looking like a hobo or a clown? They'd think you're eccentric and unreliable, and wouldn't even let you _read_ for the part."

An awkward silence filled the room for a few long seconds before Sikowitz let out a huge laugh. The students didn't know what to think. Was their favorite teacher losing his mind? Had he finally gone nuts from all of the coconut milk he'd drank over the years?

When the teacher finally settled down, he said, "Very good, Mr. Benson. I've taught this class for ten years now and you're the _first_ student to speak up to me and question the way I dress and act. That shows you have confidence in yourself; Which also means you don't have to perform the 'Bird Scene'."

"Yeah but we've all thought the same thing," Jade practically yelled as she swiftly sat up in her chair. "We all talk about the way you dress and act before and after class."

"Yes, but you never said anything to _my_ _face,"_ Sikowitz countered with an ever widening grin. "I've been _acting_ the part of an eccentric acting teacher all these years and Freddie's the only one who's had the confidence to call me out and express his opinions. Class dismissed." With that short explanation, he turned and left the way he'd came.

"What'd I miss?" Carly questioned, looking around and seeing all of the other students were gone, as she walked over to the group and handed Freddie his cellphone back.

"Freddie just got us out of class," Cat laughed and threw her fists in the air. She yelled, "Free period. Yeaaaa!"

The red velvet hue-haired girl skipped out the front classroom door followed by Robbie. Rex looked over the curly-haired boy's shoulder and said, "Thanks Freddie. I don't know if I coulda sat through one a Sikowitz' classes today. Those Northridge girls really wore me out over the weekend."

"Man, there's just gotta be a song in what Sikowitz pulled on us," André absently said as he quickly made for the open door. "I need to work on the lyrics."

"Can we help?" Tori asked as she and her twin sister followed the songwriter toward the music room to work.

"You actually read the entire student handbook?" Beck incredulously asked Freddie with a light but appreciative chuckle as he handed Jade her cup of Jet Brew coffee and snaked an arm around her waist. "I didn't think anyone read those things."

"I glanced through it on the way to class," Freddie answered as he mirrored the former Canadian by bringing Carly into a one-armed hug. "It's not that much different than what we had at Ridgeway, and one of our teachers there was suspended for being late to class a few days in a row last year. Ridgeway was extremely strict with the rules which meant the teachers came down on the students that much harder."

"Yeah, whatever," Jade huffed in boredom before she and Beck started to head out of the classroom.

"Jade, can I ask you something?" Carly tentatively queried. When the goth-girl turned to her with an expectant expression, she asked, "Is there some reason why you act like you do? I mean you always seem to be angry with _everything."_

"Why shouldn't I be?" Jade growled out and took a menacing step toward the new couple in school. She ranted, "Except for Beck and a few others, I'm surrounded by idiots who don't know the difference between an atom and a elephant. My parents are divorced and don't care about me at all; My mom is indifferent and dad doesn't like the career path I'm on."

Freddie raised a suspicious eyebrow and asked, "Just out of curiosity, what did you score on the I.Q. test everyone has to take?"

"Only one hundred sixty-two," Jade spat as if it were a vile, sour number that should've been higher, even though one hundred forty or higher denoted a genius level.

Carly shrieked out in surprise, "That's _two_ points less than Freddie scored and only ten more than me."

"Yeah but Beck scored a one sixty-_five_," Jade said in disgust, motioning to her boyfriend.

Freddie turned to Carly and said, "Well, there's Jade's problem. She bored with everything here at school except maybe the performance classes."

"No duh," Jade laughed. "I found that singing and acting are the only challenges that interest me here at school, trying to bring a song or character to life. My father thinks I should be studying science or some other such chizz; That scientific research would occupy my mind better. He doesn't think acting or singing is a good use of my talents."

"And we both know he's wrong in that assumption," Beck said, trying to calm his girlfriend down. "You shouldn't look to him for validation because you'll never get it. He just doesn't know who you are." He turned to Freddie and Carly and said, "It's just the same with my parents. That's why I moved out of the house and into a trailer parked in the driveway. It's my place so I don't have to live under their rules."

"I know," Jade heavily sighed, having had this conversation with her boyfriend many times before. "I shouldn't care what my parents think but I do. I'm not the reason dad divorced my mom but it occasionally feels like it."

"Well, maybe you should think of it this way," Carly said, having an idea of how to bring Jade out from under her dark funk. "You're a unique individual who has some very unique talents. You're one out of more than six _billion_ people in the world who is intelligent enough to know what you'd like to do with your life. If anyone _can't_ understand that, then just forget about them and concentrate on your own goals."

"Is that what you two do?" Jade asked the couple. "I mean you're both as smart as Beck and I are. How do you put up with all the stupid chizz that surrounds you?"

"We basically live life for the moment and have some fun along the way," Freddie answered for both he and Carly. "That's why iCarly was such a hit. It was creative, spontaneous and fun to do."

"We generally just try to ignore all the other chizz," Carly continued the explanation, looking to Freddie for confirmation and receiving a nod in agreement. "Sometimes we'd get caught up in it, but we somehow muddled through and move on."

"Well, that's something to think about," Jade said in deep thought, suddenly wondering why she hadn't thought about maybe producing her own record album and selling it on the web.

"Speaking of getting into some chizz," Beck said, changing the subject since he knew Jade was otherwise occupied thinking about what had been said. "What was that chizz with that Major the other night? Does it happened to do with a certain Galaxy Wars replica phaser that exploded in your apartment building a while ago?"

"You heard about that?" Carly asked in surprise.

"Your friend Gibby mentioned something about it on his blog," Beck explained. "I easily get bored like Jade does, but I surf the web to ease my boredom and accidentally ran across his blog that mentioned the incident. And since Freddie made the modifications that Gibby mentioned, I would guess that the Major also heard or read about it and wants Freddie to recreate the phaser."

"You're close," Freddie laughed, now seeing how intelligent Beck was at putting two and two together. He came up with four and a quarter, but Beck had come real close to the truth. "But before I tell you anything, you have to promise not to discuss it with anyone else. If you do, the Major threatened to charge us with treason."

"That's understandable," Jade nodded in agreement after coming out of her reverie and knowing a little about what they were talking about. She and Beck had discussed the situation on the drive home Saturday night and Beck had told her all about what he had read on the web. "If a laser weapon like Beck described can be recreated, it'd definitely be a boon to the military and they'd want to keep it a secret."

After receiving reassurances from both Beck and Jade that they wouldn't say a word about any part of the secret, Freddie told them all about selling the second phaser on Saturday, about the patent he had filed and how that led to the Major finding him.

"So it's all true," Beck lightly laughed. "I guess that means you _are_ a technical wiz kid."

Jade added with a laugh of her own, "That also explains why you were able to understand and operate the sound board in the black box theater."

The school bell rang sending the four young students on to their next class.


	11. Lessons

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 11

Lessons

Xxxxxx

"This is one amazing house," Robbie Shapiro marveled before taking a sip of his soda. He, Beck Oliver and Jade West were sitting in the half car, enjoying the housewarming party in the basement rec room with the rest of his friends from Hollywood Arts High School. (Rex was propped up on the hood of the car with a small glass of soda next to his hand.)

"I think this Mustang is sweet," Beck observed, running his hand over the dash of the flaming-design, half car. "It's too bad the rest of the car is missing. It woulda been an awesome ride."

Spencer and Cassie just happened to be walking past when Beck made his observations. "You like it?" Spencer spoke up, "It was a friend's car in high school. He got into an accident that totally destroyed the rear end of the car, but he survived along with the front half of it. I told him it'd make a great couch but he didn't want to have anything to do with it after the accident, so he gave it to me. I sold the engine which was still pretty much intact and used the money to refurbish and paint it myself."

"It's just another example of Spence's many artistic talents," Cassie lovingly cheered and leaned up to give the lanky artist a kiss on the lips.

"The pol-ice finally found Robbie's piece-a-junk car," Rex said without moving his mouth since Robbie wasn't holding him. "Maybe he'd _finally_ get some chicks interested in him if you painted it for him."

"Rex!" the curly-haired boy chided his alter-ego for suggesting that it might be the only way for him to finally get a girl to go out with him. Of course it was the original reason he'd bought the junker in the first place, but that was beside the point.

"Um, Rex is it?" Spencer asked, not knowing whether he should be addressing the boy or his puppet. "I really can't take that kinda job on right now. I have too many commissions as it is." He saw the crestfallen look on Robbie's face and felt bad for the kid. He really wanted to help one of Carly and Freddie's new friends, so he said, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I can help you out with the stencils but you're gonna have to do most of the work. When the stencils are done, you can take them to any detailing shop to get the car painted."

"Or I could help you out with the paint job," Beck offered with a nonchalant shrug before he looked to Jade who was nestled up into his side. "It'd be an interesting little diversion."

"There you go," Spencer happily said in relief, grateful that Beck would help with that part of the project.

In another part of the new rec room, André was talking privately with Mrs. Benson. After listening for a few minutes as the songsmith described his grandmother, Marissa said, "Well I'm not a doctor but your grandmother sounds like she suffering from schizophrenia or maybe the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. What do her doctors say?"

The musician somberly shook his head as he lamented, "Grandma hasn't seen a doctor in over _five_ years. She doesn't like to leave the house at all and is afraid of large groups of people."

"Those are certainly symptoms of _early_ Alzheimer's," Marissa sighed in resignation at the news she was about to deliver. "You definitely need to get her in to see a doctor for a proper diagnosis. If it is AD, she doesn't have very long to live. Most Alzheimer's patients only live for seven to fifteen years at the most."

"That's what my doctor told me when I mentioned my grandma to him," André nodded in agreement. "But it just so hard to get her out of the house."

"Well," 'Nurse' Benson thought about the situation and came up with an answer. "You can tell your grandmother that it's time for her annual physical, something _everyone_ has to endure. That should ease her mind a little bit. What I can also suggest is to make the appointment for the first thing in the morning, before the doctor's office gets busy. That way there won't be as many people around to disturb her. And make sure only people she trusts are around when you do go."

"Those all sound like great ideas," André said in relief that his grandmother just might be able to get some help. "I'll try it."

"If you need any help, let me know," Marissa said to the young lad, patting his hand in sympathy. "If need be, I'll come over to your house and make friends with her. Then when the time is right and she's used to me being around, I'll be able to help take her to the doctor's office."

"You really do care about people," André said with a growing smile.

"Yes, I do," Marissa said with a wan smile as she glanced over to watch her son and Carly talking with a few of their new friends. "But the person I've mainly been concerned about all these years doesn't need me any more so I just need to focus on something else now."

André could see the longing, loving look the nurse was giving her son and immediately understood who she was talking about. He tried to comfort the woman by saying, "Yeah, we kids grow up way too fast, don't we? But Freddie will always love you. He seems like a decent kinda guy."

"Yes he is," Mrs. Benson wistfully sighed before she turned back to the person she was talking to. This was just another example of cutting the apron strings for her. Freddie and Carly were already talking about getting married in the future and she was happy for them. They didn't need her as much now so she would have to find someone or something else to focus on, and André's grandmother was the perfect solution.

Marissa smiles at the boy and said, "I'll tell you what. Why don't I drive you home when you're ready and you can introduce me to your grandmother."

"I know she'd like that," André smiled back, happy that his grandmother would be making a new friend and getting some help with her problems soon.

For some unknown reason, Freddie Benson suddenly felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He didn't know why, but it just felt that way. Carly saw the slight change in her beau's countenance and had to ask, "What is it, Freddie?"

"I don't know, Carls," he answered. "but I suddenly feel like something is different. Something is _good,_ but different in the house."

"Well as long as it's a _good _feeling_,"_ Shelby laughed while jovially punching him on the shoulder.

Xxxxxx

The eight young students and one guest were in high spirits when Tuesday morning rolled around. The housewarming party had been a lot of fun and everyone had had a good time. But they were in for the shock of their young lives when they entered the classroom.

"Sikowitz?" Tori begged when she saw who was already standing there, waiting for them in the room.

"What are you doing here already?" Robbie asked in confusion. "You usually don't show up until after the bell."

"And you don't look like a _grunge,"_ Rex added as his mouth dropped open and eyes bulged in surprise at the sight before them.

"I was finally called out on my looks yesterday so I don't have to dress like a grunge anymore," the balding teacher explained. He was dressed in a nice pair of blue jeans, a loud but well-tailored dress shirt and had moccasins on his feet. He also wore a slender scarf draped around his neck and his hair was mostly combed too. (But the coconut was still present.)

"Sorry about that," Freddie defensively said, feeling a little guilty about calling the teacher out on how he dressed the day before considering the teacher had apparently took his words to heart and dressed properly today because of them.

"Oh, no," Sikowitz vehemently denied, moving over to talk to Freddie and his friends. "As I said yesterday, you spoke your mind and reminded everyone of how a teacher _should_ dress and act in front of all you impressionable young minds. I've been waiting for ten long years for one of my students to speak up like you did."

"Way to go, Freddie," Carly cheered and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. The other students also added their congratulations.

"Now," Sikowitz said, getting everyone's attention as he handed a script to Carly, "we have one small thing to take care of before we can get to the main focus of class. The Bird Scene."

"The Bird Scene?" Carly questioned and started paging through the booklet, quickly finding the correct page that'd been marked for her. "I don't know if I'm ready to act today. I haven't read it yet so I'm not familiar with it."

"All of my students are challenged to do this scene cold," the teacher stated as he ushered the young brunette up onto the small stage in one corner of the room. "It's only six lines and you can play it _any way_ you'd like."

"You can do this, Carls," Freddie encouraged her as the students all took their seats. "It's a piece of cake."

"You're right," Carly enthused, gaining confidence from her boyfriend/fiancé. She quickly scanned the scene a few times before she turned to the class and said, "I'm ready."

Sikowitz sat back in one of the chairs and said, "Okay... action."

Carly gayly flittered and skipped around the small stage like she was having fun tidying up the place as she started the dialog:

_"It was 1934 when my husband left me, alone. Living on the prairie was a dreary existence; no telephone, no radio." _She moved to the dry erase board on the back wall and drew a big bird which looked almost as poorly drawn as the rabbit she'd done during one of her webcasts. The bird looked like it could either be a cross between a turkey and a peacock, or maybe a nuthatch with a gladular problem.

Carly was really getting into the scene, overemoting and playing it for laughs. _"Only a large, majestic bird with whom I shared my feelings." _She dramatically draped an arm across her forehead and whined,_ "One day when I was feeling alone I said to him, 'Oh, bird. You can fly. You can soar miles from this lonely place, yet you stay... Why'?"_

By this time most of the class was laughing at Carly's over-the-top acting as she pranced back to the board and erased the bird while continuing the monolog.

_"And apparently, my question rang true, for that afternoon...my bird left. And so went my spirit."_ She turned with a huge smile on her face and dramatically waved out the window like she was trying to get someone's attention who was at least a mile away. After a few beats, she turned, took a bow and curtsied with the biggest smile on her face.

Carly walked down the few steps to stand in front of Sikowitz, handed him the script and asked, "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Did you enjoy my performance?" Carly asked. "Because I _really_ liked the way I did it."

"You _liked_ how you did it?" Sikowitz incredulously begged as he stood up.

"Of course," the brunette said, matter of factly. "When I read through it the first time, it sounded so _boring_ and _stiff._ It needed some _oomph,_ so that's the way I played it." She plopped down in the chair next to Freddie and cuddled into his embrace, receiving a congratulatory kiss.

"And that's why you passed," the teacher enthused before turned to the rest of the class and expounding on what had been said. "Carly took the character and made it her own. You all played it the way you _thought_ I wanted to see it played: straight forward. Carly saw the fun in this... this," he tossed the booklet aside like it was nothing, "this piece of boring trash."

"Wait. If you don't like the scene," Tori suspiciously begged, "then _why_ do you make us do it?"

Beck spoke up before the teacher could answer. "Because it _is _a challenge to bring something so poorly written to life and believe in your choices."

"Exactly," Erwin Sikowitz said, proud that one of his students actually got what he was trying to teach. "You may not always get the perfect script to play so you'll have to learn to make your _own_ choices on how to play it, and then stick to your guns."

Xxxxxx

"That's the first class where Sikowitz made any sense," André observed as the group walked out of the classroom at the end of the period.

"Sikowitz _was_ more informative than usual," Jade dryly added. "I think I actually learned something in his class today."

"And it's all thanks to Carly and Freddie," Cat cheered as she wedged herself between the couple that had been walking arm-in-arm and wrapped her arms around their necks. "I'm so glad you two transferred here."

"We're glad we transferred too," Carly said to the redheaded girl with a laugh at Cat's bubbly enthusiasm.

The cherry-hue topped girl suddenly turned serious and asked, "Yeah, but could you maybe do something about my math teacher? He keeps talking about X and Y axes. Why would they want to cut up numbers like that with an ax? And he keeps mispronouncing axes. He calls them 'ax-Es'."

"No Cat," Freddie tried to explain when he realized what she was talking about. "The teacher isn't trying to chop up numbers with an ax, he..."

Jade interrupted Freddie's short lecture when she cut in, "Don't bother trying to explain it to Cat. Beck and I tried for a half hour the other night and she _still_ doesn't get it."

"Ah ha ha ha ha," Cat let out with her patented screwy laugh as she pulled a piece of paper from her backpack and handed it to Carly. "We made funny little charts with squiggly lines climbing up and down across the paper. See?"

"This is a student's test chart with an X and Y axis," Carly said as she pointed out the two different axes and how they were labeled.

"Yeah," Cat said, pointing at the two lines. "The line going up is the kid's test scores while the line going across the page is the different months."

"And if you exchange the word _'line'_ with the word _'axis'..."_ Freddie prompted, hoping that simple lesson would help the overly hyper redhead.

"Oh wow!" Cat marveled as she snatched the paper from Carly's hand and peered at it. "Now it all makes sense."

Jade almost dropped her cup of Jet Brew coffee when she stopped and gaped at her redheaded friend's sudden understanding. She begged, "How did you do that?"

Freddie shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to explain something in it's simplest terms. I had to tutor Gibby one time, so I kinda figured out how to do it."

"Well from now on you two can tutor Cat in math," Jade said with a sly smile, knowing her red-haired girl friend would now be doing a lot better in a few of her classes with the help of the former Seattle-ites.

Xxxxxx

It was the end of the school day and the two former Seattle-ites really wanted to head for home and get in a little alone time before Freddie's mother or Spencer and Cassie got home, but they had one important stop before they could leave Hollywood Arts. Freddie knocked on the guidance councilor's door as he opened it. "Um, Lane? Can we talk to you for a minute?"

"Certainly," Lane Alexander said, quickly ushering the two teens over to the sofa and then sitting in his normal spot, the hanging wicker basket chair. "Now what seems to be the problem? Are you having trouble adapting to a new school? Are you missing your friends back in Seattle?"

"Oh no," Carly denied with a light giggle. "Freddie and I are fitting in nicely and we already found a new group of friends to hang with, but I still talk to Sam every night."

"Well then, what would you like to discuss?"

"It's about one of our new friends," Freddie stated as he and Carly sat back on the couch and got comfortable in each other's one armed embrace. "We're both concerned about Robbie Shapiro."

"He thinks his puppet, Rex, is real," Carly added to her beau's thought. "We both think that _can't_ be very healthy... Mentally, that is."

"It's probably just a phase Robbie is going through," Lane reasoned to the two seventeen year olds. "I think he'll will grow out of his need for Rex before he graduates next year."

"Do you _really_ think so?" Carly questioned the school councilor. "Because Freddie and I think Robbie's headed for some major mental trauma if he doesn't get rid of Rex."

"The name Rex Powers is a major indication of Robbie's split personality," Freddie explained. "In Latin, Rex means a man of great wealth or a king, and Powers, well, that's self explanatory. Rex is the dominant side of Robbie's personality, the one who can say just about anything and get away with it. He's losing the masculine side of his personality to a puppet that he can't control. If that happens, then Robbie will become a wimp and a pushover to anyone who wants to take advantage of him because Rex will simply allow it."

"Or _laugh_ at Robbie's misfortune," Carly quickly added. "Loud and long with youthful abandon."

"You're right," Lane sighed in realization that the two teens had brought up a few very good points. "Robbie's recently been having a few nightmares where Rex would dominate and bully him. I was able to stop the nightmares, but there's always the chance that Rex will assert himself again in the future; Maybe to the point of fracturing Robbie's mind permanently. I'll start having Robbie come in for weekly appointments to see if I can merge the two personalities and make him whole again."

"Being Robbie's friends," Carly asked, "is there some way we can help the process along?"

"We thought that maybe we should just ignore Rex and only talk to Robbie from now on," Freddie stated. "Would that help?"

"As a matter of fact," Lane said as he squirted some hand lotion in his hands and rubbed it in, " that's an _excellent_ idea. Hopefully, that'll lessen Rex' potency and make Robbie stand up for himself more."

"We'll pass the word on to the rest of the gang," Carly said as she and Freddie stood up to leave.


	12. Simplest of Solutions

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 12

Simplest of Solutions

Xxxxxx

Neither Carly nor Freddie were really that surprised when they exited the school at the end of the day with their friends and saw Major Dean and his two Hench-M. P.'s standing next to their truck.

Cat warily begged the former Seattle-ites, "Are you in trouble again?"

"No, Cat. It's just..." Carly lightly laughed but was having trouble coming up with a plausible excuse for meeting with the Major again so soon.

Freddie bailed her out when he cut in, "It's just that the Major told us the other night that some of his troops love iCarly and we agreed to do a meet-and-greet with them sometime. I guess that sometime is now."

Freddie saw Major Dean smile a little and nod at him, indicating that he'd heard and approved of the little white lie.

"Yes, the price of _fame,"_ Jade coyly stated, playing the part of the unaware friend. Of course she knew all too well what the Major wanted with the teen couple, but wouldn't say anything about it. She realized she and Beck could also get into some deep chizz if she let on that they knew about the fully functional phaser Freddie had created and that the Major needed the Tech Producer's help to recreate and adapt it for military use.

The Major didn't greet the two teens. He simply stated, "Miss Shay, you'll drive. Mr. Benson, you'll sit in the back with me."

Freddie shrugged, handed the keys to his girlfriend and, after Carly unlocked the doors, got into the back seat with Major Dean.

"Where to?" Carly asked, unsure just where she was suppose to drive them.

"Just follow my men," the Major said, pointing to the camouflaged Hum Vee the two M.P.'s were getting into.

The Hummer traveled slowly enough along the Hollywood streets so Carly could easily follow it and not fall behind or miss any of the traffic lights, but she was a little surprised when they got on the Hollywood/101 Freeway and headed north toward the San Fernando Valley. She thought they'd head to the Twenty-Nine Palms military base, east of L.A., or somewhere just as remote.

"Um," Freddie tried to get the Major's attention. He was thinking the same thing as his girlfriend. The only military base north of L.A. was Edwards Air Force Base, and that was over an hour away. Freddie had thought that any military research facility would've been located well away from any populated area for safety's sake. "How far do we need to go? I mean, will we need to call home and tell them not to expect us for dinner?"

"It's not far at all," Major Dean nonchalantly answered as the small caravan made its way through the light afternoon traffic. "If we need you for more than an hour you can call and make up an excuse."

"Oh, okay," Freddie shrugged when he saw the Hum Vee was getting off the freeway at the Universal Studios exit. That seemed extremely odd to him. Both Carly and Freddie were _really_ thrown for a loop when the Hummer led them to one of the parking structures near the entrance to the Universal Tours.

The camouflaged military vehicle briefly stopped at the booth for the parking garage but was let in without getting a parking stub. When Carly pulled up to the booth, the Major rolled down his back window and flashed an I.D. card at the attendant, who promptly opened the barrier gate to let them in.

Both Carly and Freddie's curiosity were piqued and both had a ton of questions, but they kept quiet. The mystery only deepened when the Hummer led them to the lowest underground level of the parking garage and stopped at the wall at the end of the last row.

"Welcome to the U.S. Army's Base Pi," Major Dean flatly stated as the Hummer flashed its headlights and a portion of the wall slide away to reveal a secret passage. Both vehicles passed through before the wall closed up again.

"Well that was interesting," Carly said as she parked the pick up truck in a spot designated for visitors near a set of elevator doors after entering a separate parking garage that appeared to have only military vehicles in it.

"You ain't seen nothing, yet," the Major said as he got out of the truck and headed for the doors. All Carly and Freddie could do was follow. They surely didn't know how to operated the wall exit to get out so they were stuck until they were told they could leave.

As they waited for the elevator to arrive, Freddie notice a PFC (a private first class) walk over to his truck and stick something on the front left of the windshield before leaving. "Ummm, Major. What did that soldier just do to my truck?"

Without looking, Major Dean said, "We just gave you a life-time parking sticker for the theme park. You'll need it if we ever ask for your assistance in the future."

"That'll be handy when we finally get a chance to tour the Universal lot," Carly said to Freddie with a growing smile.

"That reminds me," Major Dean said as he reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out two laminated cards. The elevator car arrived and they all stepped inside before the Major continued. He handed the two cards to Freddie and said, "As a cover for this facilities, we give a life-time pass to everyone who works here. That way if someone you know sees you entering the parking structure, you can just show them the pass and say you were just visiting the amusement park. Plus, you can use them as often as you like to actually visit the shops or take the tour."

"Thanks, Major," Freddie said in resignation as he pocketed the cards and took Carly's hand in his. He knew his girlfriend was going to want to use the free passes as soon as they had the time. He also knew from some research he'd done on the web, that yearly tickets for the park were around eighty dollars a piece so Freddie _wouldn't_ need to spend any money to get them into the park. But that just meant there would be more money for Carly to spend on clothes and jewelry at the 'Universal Citywalk' shopping mall just inside the tour gate. For some reason, Freddie suddenly pictured himself as a pack mule, hauling quite a few bags from one shop to the next as he followed the love of his life on her shopping spree.

The elevator ride down deeper underground was short but when they stepped out of the car they face a well armed check point. I.D. photos were taken of the two teens before the Major led them into a huge laboratory that must have been as big as a football field. They were immediately greeted by two men and a woman in stark white lab coats.

"Dr. Fine and Dr.'s Howard," Major Dean introduced the trio, first pointing to one of the men and then to the couple standing closer to each other, "This is Freddie Benson and Carly Shay."

"Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard," Freddie jovially greeted the three as he shook each of their hands. He leaned in and whispered in Carly's ear as she was greeting the trio, "Is this a Three Stooges operation?"

The acoustics in the room must've been extremely good or her hearing was excellent, because the female Dr. Howard said to the couple, "You'd be surprised how often we hear that joke, but Dr. _James_ Howard and I are married. My name is Elizabeth, by the way."

"I'm sorry," Freddie honestly apologized. "I didn't think you could hear me."

"I didn't, actually," Elizabeth Howard laughed. "It was just the way you greeted me that told me you were thinking of that old Three Stooges hospital short film."

"But I am related to _Larry_ Fine of the Three Stooges," Dr. Fine chirped in. "He was my great uncle and I was named after him, but please call me Lawrence."

The teen couple was quickly escorted to a workbench where one of the replica phasers had been taken apart. Freddie briefly scanned the multitude of pieces and asked, "Okay, what seems to be the problem?"

"We assembled this weapon following your patent," Dr. James Howard stated as he brought up an exploded diagram of the phaser from Freddie's patent on a computer screen. "But we couldn't get it to fire."

"I think I see your problem," Freddie said as he held up a small computer circuit board and turned it over in his hand to examine it. "This is a XJ-12 board. I used an XJ-9 circuit board in my design."

"But the XJ-12 is more prevalent," Dr. Lawrence Fine argued. "You can hardly even find an XJ-9 nowadays."

"That's because the 12 has more resistor circuits," Freddie explained to the three scientists. "Those extra circuits are probably the reason your phaser won't fire. The resistors are dampening down the output enough that the phaser _can't_ fire."

"I told you it would be something as simple as that," Dr. Elizabeth Howard chided her two colleagues. "But you said the XJ-12 was cheaper and easier to find."

"We have one or two number 9 boards over here," Dr. Fine said as he went over to another workbench and grabbed what he was looking for. He came back over and handed the board to Freddie.

The young man peered at the three doctors, sighed a heavy sigh and started to reassemble the phaser using the correct board. Within fifteen minutes Freddie was finished. He tried to hand the weapon to the trio of scientists but they all refused to take it.

Major Dean took Freddie's arm and guided him away from the workbench as he said, "They're not involved with the testing of the weapons made here. They just put them together." He stopped at a door in the side of the large lab, got out a set of keys and unlocked it before proceeding through. Carly, Freddie and the three scientists followed the Major down a long well-lit corridor for well over a minute before they emerged into a much smaller room that appeared to be an indoor shooting gallery or firing range of some kind.

The Major hung a paper silhouette target on a t-bar then pushed a button that sent the target down a zip line to the other end of the room as one of the scientists handed out eye and ear protection. Major Dean continued to stare down the line at the target as he said, "Go ahead, son."

"Are you sure, sir?" Freddie questioned the officer. "The first phaser I altered was able to burn a foot round hole in a glass door. The second was a bit more powerful and was able to explode a soda bottle. If I shoot at a simple paper target, all it will do is incinerate the paper. "

"We're here to see if it works," the Major stated, keeping his eye on the target. "Just fire away."

"Okay," Freddie said, looking over at Carly for her input. She simply shrugged and motioned for him to shoot.

Freddie aimed and fired. The phaser worked perfectly, lancing out with a teal colored beam that struck the target dead center in the bulls eye. After only a second, the paper burst into flame and quickly burned to cinders.

"Excellent," Major Dean joyfully cheered and turned to the teen. "Now we just have one other problem to fix."

"What would that be, sir?" Freddie queried. "The phaser is working perfectly."

"We know the first model you worked on blew up when it went into overload," the Major explained. "The second one can't and your patent doesn't explain what you did to it to stop it from overloading. We'd like you to reverse that modification."

"You _want_ it to explode?" Carly begged in surprise. "Are you nuts?"

"No, Miss Shay," the Major said to the brunette. "The U.S. Military requires a _fully-functional_ phaser that, if necessary, can be used like a grenade as a last ditch weapon."

"I can understand that," Freddie said as he went over to the workbench behind the firing line and set the phaser down. One of the scientists laid out a set of screw drivers and other tools so Freddie could make the alterations. "It's a simple thing to fix. You just have to remove the stop pin I put in to prevent the weapon from being turned up to overload."

Within five minutes, and under the watchful scrutiny of the three doctors, Freddie had the phaser back together and ready to fire again. He asked, "Do you want to see this one blow up?"

"Of course," Major Dean answered. "It's the final phase of the tests. Proceed."

"It takes about a minute to build up before it explodes," Freddie said as he started to twist the dial.

"Wait a minute," Carly interrupted, stopping her boyfriend's hand from fully overloading the weapon. "Wouldn't an explosion down here register on one of the earthquake monitoring stations nearby? Cal Tech is just down the road in Glendale and they monitor for earthquakes all up and down the coast."

"More than likely," Dr. Fine answered. "But there's very little chance that it'd be more than a blip on their seismographs. They'd more than likely take it as normal traffic from the underground rail system then a minor earthquake."

"Oh, okay," Carly said, her concerns now satisfied. "Go ahead, Freddie."

Freddie twisted the setting all the way to the stop and beyond. The small gun started to emit a low pitched hum that gradually escalated into a high pitched whine that was almost too much to bear in the confined room. Freddie tossed the overloading phaser into the far corner of the room then grabbed Carly and pulled her down to the floor, covering her with his body. The trio of doctors, taking Freddie's precautions as a sign, all dropped to the floor and covered their ears.

The Major simply turned his back and cover his ears, bracing for the explosion.

When the phaser blew, everyone was surprised at how large the explosion was, even Carly and Freddie who'd witnessed the first phaser's demise. This explosion was at least _twice_ as powerful as the one in the eighth floor hallway of Bushwell Plaza.

"Impressive," Major Dean brushed off the sleeves of his uniform tunic as he walked over to the corner and closely surveyed the dents and dings in the walls. "And all this was done with an outer _plastic_ casing. Just imagine the damage that could be done if we started making them with an aluminum or steel casing."

"Yes sir," Dr. James Howard said as he ran his hand along one of the walls, examining the small dings in it close up. "Does this mean the testing phase of the project is complete?"

In answer to the question, Major Dean pulled out his cellphone, speed dialed a number and said, "Tell the General we're ready to put 'The Fredward' into production. I'll send him the video of the tests for verification."

When Freddie heard that, he glanced around the room and finally noticed the six surveillance cameras mounted high on the walls, covering the entire room, including the camera above the blast area that'd been destroyed in the blast.

The Major ended the call, put the phone back in his pocket and turned to Freddie. "Thank you for your help, Mr. Benson. You're little discovery just moved our military into the 22nd century."

"You're welcome, sir." Freddie beamed with pride from the praise before his countenance soured a bit and he asked, "But did you just say that the phaser is gonna be named The Fredward?"

"That's right son," Major Dean said as he led Freddie and Carly out of the shooting gallery toward the main lab, leaving the cleanup duty to Dr. Fine and the two Dr. Howards. "All great weapons are named after their creators: Samuel Colt, Eliphalet Remington, Smith & Wesson, Kalashnikov."

"Those are all _last_ names," Carly observed, "so why not call it the Benson?"

"That's a very good question, Miss Shay, and there are a few good reasons. One, there are at least a dozen towns in the U.S. that bear that name. Two, the name Benson has already been used by the military. There's an RAF base in England with that name and it was also a class of U.S. Navy Destroyer used during World War II. But the final reason was the kicker. It's also the name of a fish; A type of carp."

"I guess they're all good reasons," Carly giggled at the fact that Freddie's last name was also the name of a scavenger-type fish. She turned to her boyfriend and asked, "By the way. Why _did_ your parents name you Fredward? You never told me that story."

"It's a combination of my grandfather's first names," Freddie explained. "Fredrick and Edward. Mom and dad wanted to honor both of them and they came up with Fredward. It was that or they coulda called me _Edrick._"

"Edrick, Ewwwww," Carly spat in mock horror. "And you certainly don't look like a Eddie."

"That's all very interesting, son," the Major said, taking a small notebook and pen out of his breast pocket and jotting down something in it. "We'll have to add that to our history file on you. Anyway, you're free to go now. We'll contact you again if we have any more problems."

"Yes Sir, I'm glad that I could help," Freddie said as he shook the man's hand. "But I don't know what other assistance I can be. I kinda stumbled onto how to make it work in the first place."

"Nevertheless, you've done your country proud."

"By the way," Carly cut in and asked while she shook the Major's hand. "Do you need to escort us out? Why did you have me drive in the first place while you and Freddie sat in the back?"

"I was protecting one of our country's most valuable asset," the Major answered matter of fact while pointing at Freddie.

As the young teen couple started to walk to the elevator to take them back up to their truck, Freddie turned and asked, "Major? How are we supposed to get out of the parking lot down here?"

"Just flash your headlights after driving up to the wall," Major Dean answered. "That'll notify the sentries monitoring the entrance to open the door."

"Of course," Freddie laughed at the obvious answer.

Xxxxxx

Carly and Freddie made it out of the secret underground parking lot with no problems. They briefly thought about taking a quick jaunt around the Universal lot but decided against it since they'd needed to get home to do their homework before dinner.

As they exited the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, Freddie got a call on his PearPhone. Since he was driving Carly took the call. "This is Freddie's phone. Yes, he's here but he's driving so he can't talk right now. I suppose we can stop on the way home. Okay. We'll see you soon."

"Who was that?" Freddie queried, thinking it may have been either Spencer, Cassie or his mother. "Do we need to stop at the store to pick up something for dinner?"

"That was the Ms. Schroeder from our bank," Carly said as she set the phone down between them on the seat. "She said they need you to come in and sign some more paperwork or something."

_"More_ paperwork," Freddie groaned at the thought. He'd had to sign three or four different documents when he deposited the large bank draft on Saturday. He thought that was the end of it, but obviously it wasn't.

When they arrived at the bank, Ms. Schroeder quickly jumped up from her desk and hurried over to meet them. "I'm so glad you were able to come in on such short notice, Mr. Benson," the blond bubbled with excitement. She was acting completely different than she had on Saturday when she'd been... _indifferent_ to their arrival.

"What do I need to sign, Ms. Schroeder?" Freddie politely asked. "I thought we'd finished with everything the other day."

"Your accounts with us are fine," Ms. Schroeder said as she lead the teen couple over to her desk and sat down. She opened a folder on her desk and turned it around so Freddie could look over its contents. "We just received notice from the government that they'll be periodically depositing a sum into your accounts. We just need your signature so the deposits are handled properly."

Carly glanced at the bottom of the first page and her eyes went wide. She pointed and gasped, "Freddie! _That's_ the first payment for what you just did?"

"Whoa, that's a whole lotta zeros," Freddie marveled at the figure Carly pointed out to him. He wryly chuckled, "I guess the Major doesn't waste any time."

"I'll need your signature there and there," Ms. Schroeder said as she indicated where she wanted Freddie to sign. She coyly asked, "May I inquire as to _why_ the government is paying you such a large sum of money? What are you doing for them?"

"Well, I could tell you," Freddie slyly shot back with a growing grin as he inked his name on the different pages. "But then I've have to kill you."

Ms. Schroeder wasn't sure if Freddie was joking or not. She laughed it off as a joke and said, "Well, you don't _have_ to tell me. We keep the business of our client's confidential. But in all fairness, I must warn you that the FDIC only covers each account up to a certain amount. If you want to keep your money perfectly safe it'd be wise for you to have a second name on the account or deposit some of it in a different bank."

Freddie turned to the love in his life, smiled and, in a snooty upper class British voice, elegantly begged, "Miss Shay. Would you care to be the joint owner of all my wealth?"

"I already said yes when we decided to get married and you asked my dad," Carly laughed at Freddie's formal way of asking.

"Very well then," Freddie continued in his snobby voice (reminiscent of his character 'Peeta' from _The Englishman Who Was A Terrible Father To His Two Children Named Fluffly And Peeta,_) and turned to Ms. Schroeder. "I believe Miss Shay will need a college fund in her name with the maximum amount that can be deposited from this funds transfer. Also," he casually flipped his hand as if he were talking to a lowly servant, "deposit the needed moneys to bring _my_ college fund up to its maximum."

"Very good sir," Ms. Schroeder laughed, imitating the airs Freddie was putting on. "May I _also_ suggest a joint account in your two names, _complete_ with matching debit cards?"

"I say, that _is_ an excellent idea, Madam," Carly snobbishly stated with a wide smile. "I do so hope the cards will be ready for the yacht racing this weekend. It'd be dreadful _not_ to have them on such a wonderful outing."

"Oh, don't worry, Miss Shay," the blond bank employee stated. "We'll put a rush order on the cards and you should be able to pick them up here at this establishment on the morrow in the afternoon."

_"Excellent,_ excellent," Freddie scoffed with an air of sophistication.

The three tried to hold back, but just couldn't. They broke out in loud peals of laughter drawing odd looks from everyone in the back.

"There is one more thing we need to do while we're here," Freddie said in his normal voice as he pulled out his PearPhone.

"What would that be, Mr. Benson?" Carly asked, still using her upper class voice.

"Well, Mrs. Benson," Freddie said as he dialed a number and fell back into his English character from the **Pathetic Play**. "Mumsy-Dearest had to purchase a _used_ vehicle on Saturday. I think she'd be much happier with a brand new motor car." The call connected and Freddie said in his normal voice, "Mr. Valentine, it's Freddie Benson. How are you doing today? Yes, the truck is working perfectly but my mother changed her mind and would like to get something different. Do you happen to have any new Hum Vees on the lot in yellow. I think I saw one there on Saturday."

Xxxxxx

"I'm home," Marissa Benson called out as she enter the house and took off her jacket. Why she always wore a jacket, even in warm sunny Los Angeles, Carly wasn't sure. Anyway...

"Hi, Marissa," Carly sunnily greeted her with a warm hug and bright, effervescent smile. "How was your day?"

"The same as always, Carlotta," the red-haired woman answered in a tired voice. "The same as always. Cedars is certainly much busier than Seattle General Hospital."

"That's too bad," Carly sympathized with her future mother-in-law as they walked into the kitchen. Carly got a cold bottled water out of the refrigerator, wiped it off with a towel then cracked open the sealed cap and handed it to Marissa. "But I'm sure you were as efficient as ever."

"That's true, Carlotta," Marissa suspiciously said, peering at the girl because Carly was acting a lot nicer to her than she normally did. She didn't know what was going on, but she intended to find out. "Is something the matter with my Freddie?"

"Oh no, Marissa," Carly denied, but her bright smile didn't fade. "Everything is cool as a cucumber with Freddie. As a matter of fact, he's waiting for you outside by your car with some awesome news."

Her curiosity piqued, Marissa headed for the back door. When she and Carly arrived outside they saw Freddie leaning against a huge, tarp covered vehicle which was much larger than her town car."Fredward," Marissa suspiciously queried, "what's going on?"

"I know you weren't entirely happy with buying a used car, having to deal with the previous owner's problems," Freddie said as he walked over, took his mother's hand and escorted her back over to the tarp. "So today Carly and I rectified that. Ta-Da!" Carly and her beau pulled the tarp off of a brand new, bright yellow Hum Vee.

"It's beautiful, Freddie," Mrs. Benson said as she examined the outside of the vehicle. "But what did you do with my car?"

"Freddie told Mr. Valentine that you weren't happy with the car and wanted this instead," Carly said as she opened up the driver's side door for Marissa. "He was happy to exchange it for this. He even drove the Hummer up here and took the town car back to the lot."

"Oh Freddie," Marissa chided her son as she literally had to climb into the tall vehicle, "I can't afford this. It costs twice as much as the town car."

"Don't worry about it, Mom," Freddie lightly chuckled and patted the roof of the Hum Vee. "It's totally paid for and your insurance has been changed over to cover this."

"How did you pay for all of it?" Mrs. Benson questioned her son. "You didn't spend all that money you got on Saturday for your toys, did you?"

"No mom," Freddie sighed is exasperation, knowing she would think that was the only way he could've afforded all this for her. Luckily, he and Carly had come up with a story to throw her off the track of what really happened while keeping the phaser a secret. "But it is sorta related to the toys I sold. I've been designing a few other action figures for Galaxy Wars and a toy company heard about them. One of their vice presidents contacted me after school and paid me some big bucks for the designs."

"Plus," Carly continued the story they'd made up. "Freddie's going to be receiving a _royalty_ for every action figure sold from now on, so the money should continue to roll in for a while."

Mrs. Benson's suspicions weren't satisfied quite yet, so she asked, "How much did you receive today?"

"Well," Freddie humbly started before his grin grew with each word he spoke, "you know the toy business is quite lucrative and they bought a dozen of my drawings."

"Freddie..."

"Okay mom. They bought the lot of them for just over nine hundred thousand dollars." The young boy knew what his mother was going to say so he quickly cut her off. "Now before you say anything, the money is deposited in the bank in a couple different accounts. My college fund is as large as it can be under the FDIC rules and I opened a similar account for Carly in her name. That took care of about _half_ of the money."

"What about the other half?" Marissa asked, relieved that her son had already taken into consideration his and his future wife's college obligations. But that still left a chunk of change to be accounted for.

"Well, according to the information the lady at the bank gave us," Carly continued the story, "our accounts there are at the max insurable limits so we had to move the rest of the money to another bank so it could be properly insured in case either of the banks fail."

"Our bank also let me deposit some of it into your account," Freddie told his mother. "I had to do it, otherwise I would've had to open up an account at a _third_ bank."

Mrs. Benson warily stared at the young couple for almost a minute before she smiled and said, "I'm so happy that you've become so responsible with your money, Fredward. But why did you get me this vehicle? The other car was nice."

"This has a higher ground clearance," Freddie informed his mother as he pointed under the vehicle. He and Carly had also rehearsed this part of the sales pitch to sway his mother to their way of thinking. "That means you don't have to worry as much about driving to work when the storm drains back up. The Hum Vee can easily cross standing water more than twice as deep as the town car."

"And the Hummer is one of the safest vehicles on the road," Carly pressed the argument. "Why else would the military use them but to keep their troops safe."

"And it's a new vehicle so you don't have to worry about how the previous owner treated it," Freddie finished with a winning smile.

"Well," Marissa said in astonishment, "you've both certainly thought everything through. I'm so proud of you both. And I just _love_ the color. Everyone will certainly be able to see this coming down the street."

Mrs. Benson started to get out of the Hum Vee before Freddie stopped her. "And since I had such a nice windfall today, I thought I could take us all out to dinner."

"We called Spence and Cassie," Carly added. "She knows of a nice restaurant near her shop in Beverly Hills and we thought you'd like to drive us there. You know, to get the feel of your new vehicle."

"That's a marvelous idea," Marissa said as she buckled up and found the keys already in the ignition. "Hop in."

"You got it, mom," Freddie said, closing her door and then escorting Carly around to the other side of the Hummer after throwing the tarp into the back of the vehicle.


	13. Requiem for a Dream

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 13

Requiem for a Dream

Xxxxxx

"How was your little foray into the land of the military?" Jade asked out loud with a wicked smile as Freddie and Carly approached the table out on the Asphalt Cafe Wednesday morning. Jade had become a lot less angry after their little talk and was actually acting a lot nicer with the former Seattle couple, and everyone else for that matter.

The break area was crowded with students, like always, before classes began so Carly hushed to the dark-haired girl, "Could you speak a little louder?" She and Freddie sat next to each other across from Jade. "I don't think Major Dean could hear you all the way over in North Hollywood. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in jail for treason."

"I didn't say anything that could get you into any trouble," Jade defensively shot back before she settled down with a quick sip of coffee and explained. "Everybody saw the Major leave with you in your truck yesterday so it's obvious that he needed you for _something,_ hence the question about your little trip with the Major."

"You know how the term 'military intelligence' is considered an oxymoron by some people," Freddie stated more than asked. "Well it was definitely _proven_ yesterday. The three tech guys they had working on the prototype were complete idiots. They obviously haven't worked with electronics before so the repairs I had to make were extremely simple."

"But the good thing is," Carly whispered across the table, "the tests afterward were a success and they're going to start making 'it'." She used air quotes around the word 'it'. "And since they're starting production, they paid Freddie close to a million dollars in royalties yesterday."

"_A million bucks_!?"

"_Ssssssssshhhhhh_!" Carly shushed the dark-haired beauty as she quickly glanced around at the other students to see if anyone was listening in. They all seemed to be minding their own business and not paying attention to Jade's outburst.

Freddie didn't pay any mind to the exchange and answered Jade's question. "Yeah, close to a million. The bank called on our way home and said they needed a few signatures to start the direct deposit. Imagine our surprise when we got there and the deposit was from the _government_ for _that_ much."

'"I bet," Jade laughed along with Freddie and Carly. "But why are you in school? I mean, you could practically live on the royalties alone from now on."

"I'm not exactly sure what the payment was for so I don't know how much I'll get in the future," Freddie absently shrugged. "If that million is all I get out of the deal, then I'm happy. I only paid five hundred for the thing and around thirty-five or forty dollars for the extra parts." He turned to Carly and said, "And by the way, Gibby got ripped off when he paid seven hundred for his _replica._ I bought an actual _prop_ from the same guy and was able to talk him down." He turned back to Jade and continued his explanation. "So I only laid out less than five-fifty and got a return of a million bucks. As I said, if that's all I'll get out of the deal, I made out like a bandit."

Just then the rest of the gang showed up for the beginning of classes. Freddie said to perky redhead, "Cat, be sure and thank your uncle again for the help yesterday afternoon. My mom loves her new Hummer."

"'Kay-'kay," the redhead chimed back. She suddenly got a confused look on her face and asked, "But, what did he do?"

"He drove the new Hum Vee out to our house," Carly explained to the velvet cupcake-hue haired girl, "and took back the town car Freddie's mom bought on Saturday. We thanked him when he left but we'd like you to thank him again."

"Oh. 'Kay-'kay."

"And Freddie, you can thank your mom," André said to the boy formerly from Seattle. "She came over and talked to my grandma on Monday after the party and they've been talking on the phone a lot ever since. Whatever they're talking about, grandma is a lot calmer now. I think she'll even be ready to go to her doctor's appointment soon."

The first bell rang sending the student to their first class of the day. Like Tuesday, Sikowitz was more conservatively dressed and ready for class. "Okay all you fine young students. Since we have two newbies in our midst," he indicated Carly and Freddie, "I think we should make them play 'Alphabet Improv'. What _is_ Alphabet Improv you may ask?"

Carly quickly raised her hand and answered without waiting to be called on, "I bet it has something to do with using the alphabet while making up the dialog as you go along, using each letter to start a sentence."

Sikowitz frowned at her answer and bemoaned, "You're no fun. How did you know that?"

"Well, it's in the name," Carly giggled like it was so obvious.

"So it is," the balding teacher nodded in surprise like he'd just realized the obvious. "Anyway, you two get up on stage and pick three others to play with."

Freddie and Carly made their way up onto the small stage, turned back to face the classroom and Freddie said, "How about Jade, Beck and Robbie." The three teens quickly made their way up onto the stage and joined the former Seattle couple.

"Okay... Cat," Sikowitz said, pointing to the redhead. "Pick a scene."

"I like _camping,"_ the redhead cheered and laughed with raised hands.

"Cat," Jade said in a warning tone. "You've never gone camping before."

"But I still like it! Hee-hee-hee-hee."

"Oooo-kay," Sikowitz shook his head at the ditzy redhead, then turned to the stage. "You're on a camping trip, starting with the letter A. Carly, you begin."

Carly briefly looked at the four other teens on the stage then said with a warm smile, "Aren't you glad to be out of the city and here in the wilderness?"

Freddie pointed off stage and excitedly yelled, "Beavcoon! There's a Beavcoon over there in that tree."

Robbie quizzically looked at Freddie and begged, "What's a Beavcoon?"

"Bzzzzt!" Sikowitz buzzed the curly-topped boy out. "Robbie, _sit_ _down."_

"But I don't know what a Beavcoon is?" Robbie vehemently protested as he stepped down from the stage.

"Aw, you don't know nothin'," Rex chided the boy carrying him. "A Beavcoon has the head and tail of a beaver and the body of a raccoon, and lives in the Northwest. Everybody knows that!"

Sikowitz ignored the exchange, having been forewarned about reacting to Rex to help heal Robbie's personality problem, and called out to the actors on the stage, "Beck, the letter C."

Beck Oliver looked around where Freddie had been pointing while he squatted low and theatrically shaded his eyes and begged, "Can you really see a Beavcoon out there?"

Jade West was next. She mocked, "Don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as a Beavcoon."

"Everybody sez that," Carly said to the slightly taller brunette. "But my brother Spencer thinks differently."

"Find a rock or something and maybe I can knock it out of the tree," Freddie said, searching the carpeted stage area like he was looking for some imaginary thing to throw at the imaginary animal.

Beck started to help search the floor and said, "Good gracious almighty. There's never a rock around when you wanna knock a Beavcoon out of a tree."

"Here," Jade said, holding a cupped hand out to Freddie like she was handing him something. "Take my compact and knock it out."

"I don't think that'll work," Carly doubted with a sad shake of her head.

"Just let me try," Freddie said, taking the imaginary compact from Jade and, really rearing back like an old-time baseball pitcher, throwing it where he had pointed earlier.

"Keep your eye out for any Forest Rangers," Beck said, glancing around the stage. "I don't think Beavcoon are in season during this time of the year."

"Let them _try_ and prosecute Freddie," Jade defiantly stated. "You can't arrest someone for killing an animal that doesn't really exist."

"Missed," Carly warned her boyfriend. " You need to hit him between the eyes. I think that's the only way to knock him out of the tree."

"Not really," Freddie shot back while walking a few steps forward and picking up the imaginary compact, then returning to the group. "Spencer told me you can also stun them if you hit them in the ear."

"Oh, for Gawd's sake," Beck said, snatching the not-there compact from Freddie. "Let me try."

"Please don't throw your arm out, Beck," Jade playfully pleaded to her boyfriend with a wicked smile. "We have a date tonight and I want it in good shape so you can scratch my special itch."

Carly turned to Jade in astonishment at the sexual reference and begged, "Is Beck good at scratching? Freddie is great at tickling my..."

"Bzzzzt!" the balding teacher cut in before the discussion could get out of hand and turn blue. He chided, "Carly you're out, and we don't need to hear about your love life either... _Especially_ since I don't have one."

Carly made the universal sign of a telephone receiver by holding her fist up to her cheek with the thumb and pinky finger extended, and mouthed, 'we'll talk later' to Jade. The raven-haired beauty smiled and nodded to Carly.

"Freddie, the letter Q is for you," Sikowitz pointed to the lad.

"Quite a statement, Jade," Freddie chided. "Do you and Beck make out every night like Carly and I do?"

"Okay, _Oooo-kay,"_ Sikowitz waved off the exercise as he ran up onto the stage. "I think we've _all_ had plenty of that kinda talk for now."

"I haven't," Beck whispered to his girlfriend and Freddie as they left the stage and sat down. "What say we skip next period and meet in the rec room to trade stories?"

Carly had heard the private little conversation between the three teens. She leaned over to Beck and hushed, "I don't know about trading stories but I _definitely_ want to either talk with Jade or make out with Freddie."

The rest of Sikowitz' class couldn't pass fast enough for the four teens.

Xxxxxx

Carly and Jade were sitting close together on the couch in the recreation room in a very hushed but animated conversation while Freddie and Beck played a friendly game of ping pong.

"So you and Carly have done it?" Beck asked as he served the little white plastic ball over the net.

"Yep," Freddie answered while casually returning the serve. "Have you and Jade?"

"Yeah, a coupla times," Beck answered.

That was the extent of their conversation as they continued to casually ping and pong the ball back and forth.

Meanwhile on the couch, Carly was just finishing off with her very vivid description of her and Freddie's last time making love that happened a couple of days ago right after Jade had shared one of her story. "We were just starting to cuddle afterwords when his mom got home from touring the hospital where she works. _That_ really killed the mood. But we had spaghetti tacos and now Freddie's been able to contact my dad and get permission for us to get married in a few years."

"Wow. L.A.'s been extremely good to you two," Jade marveled at the good fortune the couple were having. "You've done it a few times and are planning on getting married, you both got in to Hollywood Arts and now Freddie's a millionaire. All you need now is for a house to fall into your laps and you'll be set for life."

"The way our luck is running right now," Carly laughed at Jade's joke, "that _just_ might happen."

"It might," Jade laughed along before she became serious. "But you've known Freddie for what? Six or seven years? Why'd it take so long to get together?"

"Yeah, it's been that long," Carly confirmed. She thought for a second and giggled, "But back then he was just the nerdy kid who lived across the hall from me who would peek out the peephole in his door, waiting for me to come home. He wasn't the buff, handsome guy he is now."

"You _do _know the definition of nerd," Jade queried. "Don't you?" When she got a quizzical look, she recited, "The first definition sez it's someone who's unstylish or socially inept. But the second definition of a nerd is someone who's slavishly devoted to the attainment of knowledge. By that definition both Beck and I could be called nerds."

"Well, the _only_ reason Freddie is unstylish is because his mom buys all of his clothes." Carly suddenly looked to be deep in thought and giggled coquettishly.

"What?" Jade prompted, catching a fit of the giggles from the former Seattle-ite.

"I was just thinking of our first time," Carly laughed. "Back when Marissa told Freddie about the birds and the bees, she warned him that all women had 'Vagina Dentata'."

"Vagina... Dentata?" Jade repeated while trying to remember the Latin she'd picked up over the years during her fits of boredom. "Den-ta..." then it hit her. "Vagina _teeth?"_

"Yep," Carly laughed. "His mom told him that all vaginas had teeth and would bite his penis off if he ever had sex. But Vagina Dentata is really just an old myth about feminine empowerment over masculinity. Freddie _knew_ better but still had that image in the back of his mind when we started to make love, so he had to _thoroughly_ check out my vagina beforehand with his fingers and tongue."

"And I bet you _thoroughly_ enjoyed every second of the checkup," Jade laughed.

"Yep," Carly blushed and laughed along. The two girls were now laughing so hard that it drew the attention of their boyfriends.

"What'cha laughing about?" Beck asked as he and Freddie put down their ping pong paddles and walked over to the couch.

"Nothing much," Jade got out before she broke out in another brief fit of laughter. Beck sat down and brought her in close until she settled down. Jade finished, "She was just telling me about an old myth."

"What old myth?"

Jade looked up at Freddie, fixing him with a broad but evil smile and said, "Vagina Dentata."

"Carls!" Freddie practically yelled at his girlfriend in embarrassment as his face turned the color of a fire truck. He thought it was their little secret, yet here was Jade spouting off about the thing his mother had warned him about to scare him away from having sex with a woman.

The door to the rec room opened and Tori and Shelby walked in. Tori saw the two couples and said, "There you all are. You missed all of last period."

"Carly and I needed to talk," Jade simply explained, her sly smile still beaming brightly. "And the guys just came along to keep us company."

"Talk about what?" Shelby coyly sassed. "Were you talking about when you and Beck made love or when Carly and Freddie did it?"

"I'm not sure," Beck automatically shot back while Freddie said at the same time, "I'm not saying."

"Oh," Tori perked up at the two almost opposite reactions from the guys. By Freddie's red embarrassed face, Tori was sure she knew who the two girls were talking about. She turned to the former iCarly Tech-Meister and said, "So I guess they were talking about you and Carly's first time on Saturday at my house."

"Does everybody need to know about my love life?" Freddie growled out in frustration before he let out an angry grunt, stomped back over to the ping pong table and laid down on one half. He got his PearPhone and ear buds out and laid back to listen to some music.

The three girls and one guy watched as Freddie closed his eyes and stated rocking back and forth with the powerful tune playing in his ears. Beck curiously asked, "What's he listening to?"

"If he's really frustrated, like I think he is," Carly said, trying to hear the little bit of bleed through from his earphones that allowed some of the music to be heard, "then he's probably listening to Clint Mansell's Lux Aeterna."

"Lux Aeterna," Jade muttered to herself before she perked up after a few seconds thinking about it. "That translates to Light Dreams. It's also know as 'Requiem for a Dream'. It was used in one of the "Lord of the Rings' movies. I _love_ that song."

"Yep," Carly laughed, "so does Freddie. As a matter of fact he has a thirty minute long version of it on his PearPhone and a ten _hour_ long version bookmarked on his computer."

"Man," Beck marveled. "That could get really boring."

"You think?" Carly laughed in agreement with the good looking young teen. "But Freddie will play it while he's doing his homework and won't turn it off until his done. He sez it helps him concentrate. He's listening to it now to get rid of the embarrassment of hearing Jade and I talk about our love lifes."

"Well," Shelby said as she walked over to the boy on the ping pong table and snatched the PearPhone from his hand, "we can't have him hogging a good tune." She quickly disconnected the ear buds from the phone and went over to the stereo docking station in the room.

"Hey!" Freddie yelled in indignation from having his music taken away from him.

Shelby plugged the phone into the docking port and started the song again. The full orchestra led by very precise violins and a great choir issued from the speaker. The steady, pounding beat of the music got all of the teens to start rocking out to the familiar song.

Jade laid back into Beck's loving embrace, closed her eyes and said, "Now _this_ is the way to spend a day at school."

"That's true," Carly sighed as she also got lost in the music. "At least this piece is better than the bookmark on Freddie's computer that plays ten straight hours of 'Gangnam Style'."

Xxxxxx

"Sam, what did you do to your hair?" Carly questioned her long time friend. She was sitting at her video vanity web chatting with Sam like she did every night for a few minutes before going to bed.

"Don't you like the braided ponytail look?" Sam asked, bringing the long braid over her shoulder and stroking its length. "Juan told me it'd be better to have my hair like this in the Octagon than loose like I had always wore it. There's less for an opponent to grab and use it against you in the ring."

"I suppose," Carly nodded, seeing her point. "It's just that you look so different with your hair like that."

"I know," Sam sighed. "And it's a pain in the patooty to do." The blond girl started to smile when she added, "But Juan braids it for me so it's well worth it."

"Oh?" Carly coyly begged. "Why is it _sooo_ worth it?"

"Cause he fixes my hair at night before we go to sleep," Sam kinda bragged. "He messes it up first when we make love and then he braids it again while we cuddle afterward."

"Yeah," Carly blushed, thinking about Sam and her boyfriend in bed. "I guess that _would_ be worth it."

"Maybe you should have Freddie start braiding your hair," Sam slyly suggested.

"He sorta does now," Carly confessed, her blush amping up. "But he's more interested in my... _bikini_ hair, and what's covered by it."

"Whoa, Carls," Sam said in surprise. "So the Dork likes your bearded clam?"

"Sam!"

"What?" the blond defensively begged. "We used to talk about sex and what we'd like a guy to do to us all the time."

"That's true," Carly ceded. "But I thought you'd stopped calling Freddie names."

Just then a buzzer could be heard on Sam's end of the conversation. She turned around, then looked back at Carly with a huge smile and said, "Gotta cut this short, Carls. My fried chicken is ready."

"You're making chicken at this time of night? It's time for bed."

"Yeah," Sam said as she stood up but leaned back into the camera pickup to finish the conversation. "Mamma needs something to tide her over before breakfast rolls around. 'Night Carls."

"Good night, Sam," Carly giggled while thinking that some things never changed.

Xxxxxx

Author's Note: Yes it's true. If you go to YouTube you should be able to find at least one - ten hour long "Gangnam Style" video. I found at least _three_ versions of it and one ten hour version of "Requiem for a Dream" by Clint Mansell.


	14. Co-Hosts and Lemonade

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 14

Co-Hosts and Lemonade

Xxxxxx

"In five, four, three, two..."

"That's right all you iCarly fans out there. I'm back!" Carly Shay bubbled with enthusiasm as she bounced in place, excited beyond belief that they hadn't had to skip a week doing the show. She panned her hand around the room as she said, "And as you can see, the place we're shooting the show is different. You might recognize a few of the things from our studio in Seattle but Freddie and I are actually in Hollywood."

Freddie turned the camera around to face him as he said in a goofy voice, "And if you don't know, that's a suburb of Los Angeles in Southern California." He quickly turned the camera back to Carly.

"I would _hope_ all out viewers out there know where Hollywood is," Carly playfully chided her boyfriend/fiancé for the interruption. "Anyway. We're live on the web from our basement rec room. We moved _everything_ from our old studio so that's why a lot of the stuff you see is familiar. The other things, like this ice creme sandwich sofa and boat slash coffee table..." Freddie panned down to show the plexiglass table filled like an aquarium, complete with a few fish swimming in it along with a couple of remote control boats bobbing on the surface, "... were in my bedroom before."

"Ooooo, boats!" the high pitched, female voice came from off screen before a red-headed girl darted into the shot, sat down, snatched up one of the remote control units and started to maneuver one of the toy boats across the surface of the water.

"Caaaaat!" another high-pitched, female voice came from off camera, berating the redhead.

"Don't worry about it, Tori," Carly said as she sat down next to Cat and put a captain's hat on the head covered by red velvet colored hair. "She can play with the boats for the whole show if she wants to."

"Arrrrrgh, I'm a squirrely sea captain," Cat said in her gruffest voice with her right index finger shaped like Captain Hook's hook, which was quickly offset when she started to laugh and go back to playing with the toy boat. "Set the bilge sails and pipe everyone to the poop deck! Oops! I said poop deck on camera!"

The camera followed Carly as she stood up and walked over to a pair of tall, svelte brunette teen girls who appeared to be identical except for the different Penny T's they were wearing. One shirt was gray with the words '_Octopus Ballet_' on it while the other was light blue with _'Steven Carson is a Pancake_' on the front. Carly took the arm of one of them, the one with the 'octopus' shirt, and said, "Since Cat is having fun with the boats, I guess Tori here will be my _official_ co-host for this show."

"Heeeeeey!" Tori waved to the camera in greeting. She turned to her identical twin and said, "And this is my sister, Shelby. If you saw the show a few weeks ago, you've already met her."

The rest of the show went smoothly. Carly and Tori performed most of the comedy skits but Shelby helped out with a few. Freddie occasionally panned over to show Cat still playing with the boats, once steering with her bare foot, before the next skit started.

"And we're clear," Freddie said out loud, indicating that the show was over and he had turned off the feed to the web.

"That was fun," Tori cheered. "But Improv is a whole lot harder than working from a script."

"I don't know about that," Shelby said to her sister. "I mean it's just like fighting in the Octagon. You go in with a basic strategy but have to wing it most of the time when you see an opening."

"But I don't like to look like a fool," Tori explained.

"Isn't that what comedy is all about," Carly questioned as she brought over a pitcher of her special lemonade and some glasses for the twins, Cat, Freddie and herself. "You act the fool to make people laugh."

"I guess I'm not cut out to be a comedienne," Tori sighed as Carly poured her a glass of liquid refreshment. "Maybe I should just stick to singing and acting in dramatic parts." She perked up a bit as she said, "Now Trina would be great as a comedienne if she ever got over herself."

Freddie joined the three girls after putting his equipment away and joked, "Are you suggesting we bring Sam back down here to L.A. to beat some sense into your stepsister with a butter sock?"

'No!" Tori vehemently denied, then really thought about it for a few seconds before she tentatively shook her head and said, "Ah, no, I guess not." She took a sip of her lemonade and made a sour face. She leaned over to her sister and whispered, "Does your lemonade taste okay?"

Shelby shrugged and took a sniff of her glass, then took a small sip. She immediately spat it out and harshed, "Ick! Um, Carly? Were the lemons you used in this fresh?"

"Yes, why?"

"It's just that..." Tori started as she put her glass down on the bar counter, (the one used in the _Cowboy with a mustache and Idiot Farm Girl_ **Pathetic Plays**) pushed it away and couldn't think of a nice way to say the drink tasted awful. Shelby followed suit and set her glass of special lemonade down.

"What's wrong with it?" Carly indignantly begged, unsure why the twins had shunned the drink after only a sip.

"Carls," Freddie said, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend after setting his glass down without taking a drink, "there's no easy way to say this so I'm just gonna blurt it out. I love you to death but you can't make a decent glass of lemonade. _Nobody_ likes it."

"But you've finished off your glass when I've made it before," Carly irately stated, thinking back on all the times Freddie had seemed to enjoy her lemonade.

"No I didn't," Freddie honestly stated. "I've always been in love with you so I didn't want to tell you. I'd dump my glass down the sink when you weren't looking."

"Well, you coulda told me before."

"Yes, I _should_ have," Freddie agreed. "Friends can tell their friends anything and I apologize for not telling you sooner. I was just trying to spare your feelings and that was wrong of me to do."

"Well," Carly calmed down a bit. "I suppose since you told me now it's okay. But, what's wrong with it?"

"I really don't know what you did wrong when you made this," Freddie said, holding up the half empty pitcher of lemonade and tried to see what could possibly be off with it. "Maybe you just have trouble making anything to drink. Remember when you were banned from the Groovy Smoothie and tried to make one on the show?"

Tori interrupted Carly and Freddie's little talk when she held up her still full glass, warily peered at it and asked, "You called this your _special_ lemonade. What makes it so special?"

"Oh," Carly was caught off guard by the question for a moment, then answered. "I add a whole little bottle of lemon seed oil to make it taste more lemony."

"Lemon _seed_ oil?" Freddie questioned, wondering what she was talking about. "Show me."

Carly led the Freddie and the twins up to the kitchen, pulled a little brown bottle out of the trash and handed it to her beau. "This is what I use."

"Carls," Freddie tentatively said, closely examining the bottle. "This isn't _lemon_ seed oil. It's _linseed_ oil."

"What's the difference?" Carly innocently queried.

"Linseed is generally used in the manufacturing of varnishes, paints and wood finishes," Freddie explained.

"You gave us _varnish_ to drink?" Shelby incredulously asked.

"Don't worry," Freddie reassured the mixed martial arts fighter. "Linseed is totally edible. Some people use it as a nutritional supplement. They say it has a hearty taste."

"But it doesn't go well with lemons," Tori said, taking a glass out of the drying rack and filling it from the sink faucet before rinsing her mouth out.

Just then Cat came up from the basement rec room to join her friends. She had the toy boat remote in one hand and a empty glass that once had lemonade in it in the other. She enthused, "This was great lemonade! It's so hearty! Can I have some more?"

Xxxxxx

A month had passed and the iCarly web show was still going strong. Jade West had co-hosted one week and she was a big hit playing the Cowboy with a Mustache opposite Carly's Idiot Farm Girl. Robby had also co-hosted one week and his popularity at school had soared immediately after; So much so that Robbie was now getting asked out on a few dates. Unfortunately most of the girls asked where Rex was and Robbie had to lie and tell them that his former alter ego had moved away.

Cat was persuaded to put the boat remote down for one Friday night to co-host. But when the show was over the allure of the miniature boats captured the redheads attention once again. At one point during the month, Cat had wanted to take the whole coffee table home with her but was persuaded to leave it in the basement when Freddie promised to have one especially made for her bedroom. (Jade thought that might be a bad idea, thinking that the redhead would never want to leave her room.)

The whole gang had just finished off another iCarly show and were lounging around the basement celebrating the show's completion. Beckand Robbie had dressed up as other vampire friends of Fredward Cullen for one skit while André had closed out the show with a new song sung by Tori, Cat, Jade and Carly. (If you're interested, Shelby had flown back to Seattle to start training for her next bout after visiting her new-found family for two whole weeks.)

Freddie was channel surfing to see if anything interesting was on the TV when Jade suddenly yelled, "Stop! Go back two channels and turn it up."

Freddie complied and found out that the channels that'd caught Jade's eye was actually the World News Network which was running a breaking news story. "You wanna watch WNN?" Freddie incredulously begged as he turned up the volume. "Why?"

"Shhhhh!" Jade silenced him, paying close attention to the news report.

The News Anchorwoman reported," Once again, the successful U.S. Army's raid on a Guatemalan drug operation revealed that it has a _new_ weapon in its arsenal." The video that was running showed a hectic but well organized troop of U.S. soldiers firing a very familiar gun created by Freddie at a warehouse surrounded by jungle. The teal colored laser rays were piercing the walls of the building, leaving large holes in the sheet metal walls.

"Army spokesmen aren't saying where or how they obtained the new laser-type weapons, only that an official announcement would be forthcoming in a few days. As to the raid... The building where the drugs were being kept was utterly destroyed by the new laser weapons and five of the drug-runners were killed. In a statement released by the State Department, the raid was deemed a complete success." The final shot of the news footage showed the warehouse razed to the ground, no more than a smoldering pile of burning debris while the soldiers were rounding up the few remaining bad guys. "In other news..."

Freddie muted the newscaster's voice.

"Freddie..." Jade said in disbelief at what she just saw.

"Yeah, I know," Freddie simply answered, lost in thought about the vast but highly accurate destruction wrecked by his invention.

"What was that all about?" André Harris begged. He'd wandered over after his attention was drawn by Jade's initial outburst and the loud explosions and buzzes heard on the television.

"That," Jade said, pointing at the TV, "was some of Freddie's work."

"Hey! Nobody's supposed to know about it," Freddie snapped at the raven-haired singer/actress.

"It was just on the news, _worldwide,"_ Jade sharply stated, pointing again at the muted TV. "I don't think it matters much if your friends know you invented the laser. The words gonna get out sooner rather than later."

"But it's still supposed to be a secret until the Major sez so," Freddie argued back.

"Wait, wait," André jumped into the argument, pointing at Freddie. _"You_ created a laser weapon for the army?"

"He didn't create it for the military," Jade answered for Freddie. "But they somehow found out about it and made it their own. And Freddie received a million dollars for it."

"Geez, Jade," Freddie harshed at the wannabe singer/actress. "If you're gonna tell André about one of my secrets, why not tell him about Carly and my love life while you're at it."

"Hey," Jade playfully smiled. "If it'd make our resident millionaire happy..."

Freddie was about to zing her back when his PearPhone sounded off. He checked who was calling and begged in confusion, "Area code 202?"

"Who do you know in Washington D.C.?" Beck asked, having heard part of their conversation and wanting to calm down his girlfriend sitting on the couch so things didn't get out of hand.

"I don't know anyone," Freddie said as he accepted the call. "Hello? Oh, hi Major Dean. Yes, we saw the report on the news. You want us to _what?"_

"What's going on?" Carly curiously asked her boyfriend after hearing him get the call.

Freddie held up a finger, saying to hold on for a minute as he listened on the phone. He let out a heavy sigh and said, "Okay, Major. We'll be ready," then hung up the phone.

"What does the Major want now?" Carly asked her beau. They hadn't heard from the Army Officer for almost a month before this call and she wondered if Freddie needed to help the scientists again. She hoped so because then they could spend a few hours wandering around Universal Tours afterward and maybe get in a little shopping at Citywalk.

"He needs us to pack an overnight bag," Freddie said as he brought Carly into a warm embrace. "The Major is sending someone over to pick us up in about ten minutes. He said he has a plane waiting to take us to Washington D.C. for a press conference."

"Do you think they're finally gonna make the announcement?" Beck queried.

"That's what it sounds like," Freddie said before he turned to the rest of the gang. "I guess this means the party is over for tonight. Carls and I have to fly to Washington."

"Should we tell Spencer or your mother?" Carly asked her fiancé as they followed everyone up the stairs to say good bye and then head to her bedroom to pack a few things.

"Let's just tell Cassie or Spencer," Freddie suggested. "I don't think we have time to deal with mom right now."

Xxxxxx

Major Dean was already on the plane when Carly and Freddie boarded the Lear jet that had an Air Force logo painted on its wings and tail. The Major didn't say a word of greeting to the young couple, being deep into some paperwork that he obviously needed to finish during the five hour flight.

As they looked around the cabin an Air Force Lieutenant came up to them, took their bags and said, "Welcome aboard. The Major will be with you sometime during the flight but he has a lot of paperwork to catch up on dealing with your invention, Mr. Benson, and doesn't wish to be disturbed at this time."

"You can call me Freddie, Lieutenant..." Freddie said, trying to find the name patch on the airman's uniform but couldn't because it was being covered by the strap of Carly's backpack slung over his shoulder.

"My name is Lieutenant Wilson," the junior officer said as he led the two teens over to a couple of plush seats away from the Major. "We'll be taking off in a few minutes so sit down and buckle up. We can talk more after we reach altitude."

The two teens had barely buckled their seat belts before the plane started taxiing to the nearest runway. In no time at all, the Lieutenant returned and asked, "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

"We can get something ourselves," Carly said as she started to unbuckle her seat belt. "Just tell us where the kitchen is."

'No, Miss Shay. That's my job," the Lieutenant said with a smile. "I'm what you would call a Steward on a regular airline. I'm here to keep anyone who flies on this plane happy and comfortable."

"Oh, well then," Carly said, sitting back in her seat. "If you have any Peppy Cola, that would be great."

"Same for me," Freddie said before the Lieutenant could ask.

"Anything to eat?" Lt. Wilson asked. When both teens politely shook their head and said no thank you, he quickly disappeared in the back of the plane.

The seats were so comfortable and the ride so smooth, both Carly and Freddie fell asleep holding hands shortly after receiving their drinks. When they awoke from their nap, Major Dean was standing in front of them.

"I take it you had an enjoyable flight?" the Major asked as he sat opposite the teens in one of the seats facing them.

"Is it almost over?" Carly begged as she stretched a bit and glanced out the window, seeing the buildings far below them. "I guess I was more tired than I thought I was after doing the show."

"You were _both_ quite active during the show," the Major observed. When he saw the questioning looks start to appear on the teens faces, he clarified, "The Army's been monitoring your web show ever since it started because your father is in the military. _I've_ been monitoring it ever since we found out about Freddie's invention."

"I suppose that's understandable," Freddie said, as he stretched from his nap a bit. "You probably wanted to make sure we didn't talk about it on the show."

"That's true," the Major said before he let out a heavy sigh. "But we also kept track of your everyday lives as well. I was concerned when Beck Oliver and Jade West confronted you a month ago about the phaser. Some of the _higher-ups_ weren't pleased that you confirmed their suspicions, but neither Mr. Oliver or Miss West passed on the information so they decided to let it slide."

"You've been spying on us?" Carly incredulously begged.

"We prefer the term _'monitoring',_" Major Dean growled out, "but yes. You knew about a top secret military project so we kept an eye on you and your friends."

"But now the secret is out," Freddie observed, thinking about the news report. "I take it that's why we're flying to Washington. I'll be part of a press conference confirming the phaser's existence."

"That's part of the reason," Major Dean confirmed with a wicked smile. "But there are a few people who'd also like to personally meet you."


	15. Meet-And-Greets

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows **Victorious** and **iCarly** on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode **iParty With Victorious**. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.

Xxxxxx

Oranges

Chapter 15

Meet-and-Greets

Xxxxxx

The jet landed at Andrews Air Force Base and was met by a black limousine when it pulled to a stop in front of one of the hangars. Carly and Freddie tried to find their bags but were quickly hustled off the jet and into the car by the Major before they could protest.

"What about our things?" Carly vehemently asked, trying to look back to the jet as the car swiftly but smoothly pulled away and quickly entered the traffic flow headed for Washington D.C..

"Your luggage will be taken to the room you'll be staying in tonight," Major Dean reassured her. "We're running a little behind schedule so someone will make sure it's taken care of."

Carly and Freddie loved the free tour of their nation's capitol. It was the first time either of them had been in Washington D.C. so seeing all the monuments and buildings up close that they'd only heard and read about in school was a real treat, even though it was late at night.

They were _totally_ surprised when, at a little after eleven o'clock, they pulled up to the gate in front of a very well known building.

"Um..." Carly gawked in shock at the large white oblong structure. "Is that really...?"

"The White House?" Freddie finished her question.

"Yes, it is," Major Dean confirmed, not looking up from the papers he was shuffling in his briefcase. "By the way. Do you have the I.D.'s we made for you at Base Pi on you?" When both teens said yes, the Major heaved a sigh of relief. "That's good. You'll need to keep them on you at all times while you're here."

As the I.D. cards were checked at the security post just inside the doors, Carly leaned over to her beau and whispered, "Do you have any idea why we're here at the White House?"

"I would guess that the President wants to personally thank me for creating the phaser," Freddie guessed. "That's the only reason I can think of."

Indeed, that was one of the reasons why the teens were at the White House. They were immediately escorted to the Oval Office where they met the President who commended Freddie for his discovery. After a quick photo op, the two teens were given a quick tour of the building by an Aide. (The Major had excused himself saying that he would see them in the morning and then left after the meeting in the Presidential Office.)

The last stop on the tour was the Lincoln Bedroom. As they entered, Freddie immediately noticed that their overnight bags were sitting on the bed. He turned to the Aide and asked, "Um, why are our bags in here?"

The Aide answered, "Because the press conference isn't until tomorrow morning and there are a few other people that would like to meet you here in the White House, but aren't awake this late at night." He quickly added, "Breakfast is served at eight-thirty. Someone will come up to get you shortly before then. Good Night." He quickly turned and left the room.

"We get to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom?" Carly questioned her beau in disbelief. It wasn't really a question. She was just amazed that they would stay in the White House on their very first visit to Washington D.C.

"I guess we are," Freddie shrugged as he checked out his small suitcase. They weren't told what to bring with them to wear so he'd only brought what he thought would be a nice pair of pants and shirt for the press conference and some gym shorts and a t-shirt for bedtime. (Plus the usual toiletries.) He noticed a clock radio on the nightstand next to the bed and asked, "If breakfast is at 8:30, what time do you want to wake up?"

Carly was exploring the room and had opened a door, finding an adjoining bathroom. She turned to Freddie and sassily asked, "I guess we don't have to get up until eight but I want to take a shower before bedtime. Do you wanna join me?"

"You wanna do it in the shower?" Freddie curiously begged as he started to get undressed.

"Why not?" Carly giggled as she started to strip out of her clothes. "I bet most of the couples that stay here make love in bed. You know we're different than most people."

"That's so true," Freddie said as he nakedly walked over to his girlfriend and helped her out of her clothes. "We have a web show on the internet and we're already millionaires at the age of seventeen. We are definitely different than most people."

Xxxxxx

When the teen couple were escorted down to breakfast they discovered who the other people who wanted to meet them were. The President's wife with her two daughters were sitting at the table to greet them. The two girls were very excite to finally meet the teens who's show they'd enjoyed on the internet.

All through breakfast Carly was peppered with questions about the show and where Sam had gone off to from the overly excited ten and thirteen year old girls. She answered as best she could between bites while Freddie and the First Lady had an amiable chat and lightly laughed at Carly's plight while enjoying their meal.

As breakfast concluded, the ten year old came around the table and told Freddie that she wanted to marry Fredward Cullen when she grew up. It was Carly's turn to laugh as Freddie sputtered for an answer, finally saying that Fredward and Carly were boyfriend and girlfriend, and that they were going to get married in a few years. The little girl pouted at the reply but quickly recovered and ran off with her older sister.

The First Lady thanked Carly and Freddie, saying she and her daughters were big fans of the show and were all pleased that it was continuing after their move to Los Angeles.

Despite that fact that it was Sunday morning, the teens were whisked away in the limo again to travel to the news conference that would be held back at Andrews Air Force Base.

Carly received another surprise when she entered the long black expensive car.

"Morning Snug Bug," the uniformed man in the back seats of the limo said with a huge smile as the two teens crawled in.

"Dad?" Carly shouted in surprise, seeing her father for the first time in quite a long time. "I thought you were in Italy." She quickly embraced her father in a warm hug.

"I was," Colonel Steven Shay answered, accepting as well as giving the needed contact with his daughter. "But when I found out who created my new sidearm I just had to be a part of the announcement, and the Air Force Brass agreed."

"You were issued a phaser?" Freddie asked his future father-in-law as he shook the man's hand. "Why?"

"For the same reason we used to carry a pistol," the Colonel simply shrugged as the car sped off into the light weekend traffic. "If I'm shot down behind enemy lines I'll need something to protect myself and fight with."

"I forgot you carry a sidearm when you're on-duty," Carly said to her father before quickly changing topics. "So, what do you think about the phaser?"

"Actually, I like it a lot better than my old firearm," Colonel Shay stated. "There's absolutely no chance of a ricochet and it's lighter than anything I've carried before, too."

The three chatted on the way back to Andrews Air Force Base. Freddie told the Colonel all about how he'd accidentally made the first 'real' phaser pistol after the replica had been damaged and Carly told her father all about their new home in Los Angeles and how Spencer's art was practically flying out of the gallery due to the newspaper article.

When they arrived at the testing grounds where the news conference was being held, the demonstration part of the announcement was just wrapping up. The Colonel and the two teens were just sitting down when Major Dean took the mic.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the press. As you've just witnessed, the Fredward is an awesome weapon of the future. But unlike the past, the military will _not_ contract out the weapon's production. We would like to keep the component parts a secret as long as possible to prevent it from falling into enemy hands."

The Major avoided most of the questions thrown at him about where the weapon would be made, how much the weapon cost and other similar questions, but gave out enough information to satisfy the news people.

When the questioning slowed down, the Major announced, "Now you get to meet the young man who created the Fredward, Mister Freddie Benson."

The Major met Freddie half way to the podium, shook his hand and whispered, "Don't give them _too_ much information. If you need help, look over at me for direction."

Freddie nodded to the Army Officer and then walked up to the mic. It felt kinda weird seeing all of the news people staring at him. He'd had to give speeches in a few classes at school but this audience was much larger than any classroom. Freddie thought he'd be okay since he had acted on iCarly but it also wasn't the same. Here he could actually _see_ his audience and they were specifically there to ask him questions.

Freddie cleared his throat and began. "Hi, my name is Fredward Benson and I accidentally came up with the phaser design about a year ago."

One of the male reporters yelled out, "What do you mean you _accidentally_ came up with the design?"

"Actually, that's a very funny story," Freddie started with a light chuckle. "A friend had bought a replica of a Galaxy Wars phaser that fired a harmless light beam but it somehow got damaged. My friend was devastated by the loss so I tried to fix it. I was having a hard time and finally had to substitute a few parts. When I tested it out, it fired a _real_ destructive beam instead of the light, like before."

"What kind of parts did you have to substitute?" a woman reporter called out.

"I believe that information is classified," Freddie said, looking over at the Major and getting a satisfied nod.

Another man asked, "How much did you receive for the design?"

"I'm... not going to tell you." Freddie hesitantly answered.

"Why not?" the reporter pressed.

"Well, one," Freddie smirked. He knew the perfect answer to get the question dropped. "I believe my personal income is just that. It's personal. It's between me and the government and I'm sure they'll get some of it back before April 15th next year. And two. Would you like to come up here and tell all of your fellow reporters how much _you_ made last year? I'm sure they'd love to compare contracts with you."

Those two reason got a polite, if not embarrassed, laugh from the reporters making Freddie feel a little more at ease.

Another woman reporter then asked, "How do you feel about your creation being used to _kill_ people?"

Freddie noticed Major Dean start to move up to the podium but he covertly waved the Officer off. He turned back to the reporters and said, "I don't think my phaser kills people." That drew some disbelieving mumbles from the media. He quickly continued. "It takes someone pulling the _trigger_ to fire the phaser. The user has to _aim_ the phaser for it to hit and kill someone. Therefore, the phaser doesn't kill, the person using it is the killer. It's just like a baseball bat or a hammer. In the wrong hands, those seemingly innocent tools can also be used to kill."

"But the phaser isn't a hammer or a bat," another reporter called out. "It's designed specifically to fire a deadly laser beam."

"Ahhh," Freddie said, raising a finger to drive his point home. "But that beam can _also_ be used by many industries to help production become faster and more efficient; Industries that currently use laser technology that's not as powerful at this is."

The Major stepped up to the podium and announced, "I believe we'll leave it right there."

"One final question," the woman who'd asked about the parts yelled. "How old are you, Mr. Benson?"

Freddie's smile grew as he answered, "Does it matter how old I am? Mozart was writing operas when he was five years old. Age has nothing to do with creativity."

More questions were fired at the young man but the Major quickly escorted him and the two Shays over to the limousine and they quickly drove away.

"You did great," Carly enthused and gave him a peck on the lips.

"Yes, you did," Colonel Shay echoed, shaking the boys hand after his daughter sat back down between them. "But you're lucky they didn't ask any of the hard questions."

"Like what?" Carly queried her father.

"Well, this new weapon is going to cut into the bottom line of quite a few companies; The arms and ammunition industries to be precise. I wonder what their take on this development will be?"

"Like I'd be able to answer any of those kinds of questions," Freddie laughed.

Xxxxxx

Before they were taken to the jet to return to Seattle, the limo stopped at a different hangar where hundreds of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel were waiting for a meet and greet with the two teens from iCarly. The web hostess was asked to sing a song and she obliged while Freddie ran the audio for her. They mingled with the enlisted personnel for over an hour, signing autographs and listening to the men and woman, most not much older than they were, praise the show and Freddie's new invention.

Finally, it was time to leave. Carly and Freddie said good-bye to her father who had to fly back to Florence Italy that evening, and then they were driven to one of the officer's barracks to shower and get ready to fly back to Los Angeles.

"Whoa, that was something," Carly sighed, mostly from exhaustion, as they climbed the few stairs into the same jet that'd flown them to Washington D.C.. "But it was fun."

"The men and women were a much better audience than the fans at Webicon," Freddie observed as Lt. Wilson brought them each a glass of Peppy Cola for the flight. "Thinking about all the U.S.O. shows I've seen videos of over the years, I'm surprised they weren't a rowdier bunch."

"May I?" Lt. Wilson asked, pointing to the seat facing the young couple. When he got a nodding approval from them, he sat down and said, "That's because the Base Commander made it quite clear before you arrived that you were both minors and that rowdy behavior wouldn't be tolerated."

Freddie let out a laugh as he pulled a few slips of paper out of his pocket and asked, "Is that the reason I only received a half dozen phone numbers from the ladies in the audience?"

"Only _six?"_ Carly laughed along with her beau as she started pulling quite a few pieces of paper out of her back pockets and said, "I musta got at least two or three dozen phone numbers and as many proposals for marriage."

"Well the troops _were_ mostly men," Freddie jovially reminded the brunette.

"If you don't mind," Lt. Wilson said, taking a plastic sandwich bag out of his pants pocket and holding it open. "The Commander wants those."

"What will happen to the guys?" Carly asked as she put the slips of paper into the bag. "They won't get into any trouble, will they?" After Carly had placed all of the phone numbers in the bag, Freddie followed suit.

"Oh, not too much trouble," the Lieutenant answered as he pocketed the evidence. "They'll have to pull a day of K.P. or guard duty. That's all. They _were_ warned not to make passes at either of you."

"That's a small price to pay to _maybe_ get a date with _the_ Carly Shay," Freddie laughed as he gave his fiancé's hand a quick squeeze. "I know I'd risk it."

"You don't have to risk anything," Carly slyly cooed back. "You already got me."

"There's one final thing I have to ask," Lt. Wilson said as he pulled an autograph book out from behind his back, obviously hiding in his back pocket. "Would you mind? My daughter is a _huge_ fan."

"Certainly," Carly said, taking the book from him and opening it up. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Mary Ann," the Lieutenant said with a smile as he brought out his cellphone. "I'll take one picture and then leave you two alone for the rest of the flight."

"Would you like to be in the picture?" Freddie asked, scooting away from his girlfriend to let the Lieutenant sit between them for the picture.

Xxxxxx

Carly and Freddie wearily trudged into the house, dropped their bags and collapsed on the couch in the living room. While the flight had been comfortable and relaxing, the entire weekend had really wiped out the two teens.

They weren't expecting to be assaulted by Freddie's mother who came storming out of the kitchen as soon as they sat down.

"_Fredward Benson_," Marissa Benson almost yelled as she towered over the couple on the couch, "you _lied_ to me."

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Freddie tiredly asked. Sure, he had kept some information about a few things from her but he couldn't remember outright lying to her about anything.

"You said you got the money for my new car from selling your designs for a few Galaxy Wars action figures. I saw the press conference on the news. You obviously got all that money from that laser thing you made. Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

Freddie sat up on the couch and calmly said, "I didn't tell you because I _couldn't_ tell you. The Major told us that if we talked to _anyone_ about the phaser, we'd be arrested for treason and thrown in jail for the rest of our lives."

"We're both sorry we had to mislead you," Carly said, also sitting up on the couch and taking Freddie's hand in hers. "But now that the secret is out, we can tell you all about it."

"Well," Marissa's ire quickly waned, not wanting her only son to be incarcerated for divulging something that was supposed to be kept a secret, "I _suppose_ it was necessary, but I think you could've told your own mother."

"I didn't want to take the chance," Freddie explained. "If you knew about the phaser, you could've been taken into custody until the public announcement was made."

"They wouldn't have done that," Mrs. Benson warily begged, thinking back to when the two very mean looking M.P.'s wouldn't let her follow Freddie outside when he and Carly first talked to Major Dean at Karaoke Dokie. "Would they?"

"I don't know, mom," Freddie warily shook his head. "But I as I said, I didn't want to take the chance."

Xxxxxx

It was Monday morning and Freddie and Carly were at their lockers exchanging the books they'd taken home over the weekend for the ones they would need for the first few classes of the day. Freddie had just closed his locker door and moved over to where Carly was when a man and woman approached them and asked, "You're Freddie Benson. Aren't you?"

"Um, yeah. That's my name," Freddie automatically answered, wondering who the two people were and what they wanted with him. They didn't appear to be fans of iCarly, they were much too old and well dressed. The man appeared to be in his late 60's or early 70's with silver/white hair and wearing a well-tailored business suit. The woman, a real blond bombshell, seemed to be half as old as the man and wore a smart business suit style jacket and skirt and looked to be his personal secretary. "Can I help you?"

"You may actually be a big help to me, son," the man beamed a smile at the teen couple and extended his hand to shake. "My name is James Pierce, but you can call me J.P."

"Mr. Pierce," Freddie cautiously said, shaking the man's hand. "Um, how can I help you."

The man ignored Freddie's formality with his name and started, "I'm the president of a large ammunition manufacturing company and a few of my colleagues, also in the firearms industries, thought we should approach you and ask that you... _stop_ helping the government with the Fredward."

Jade, Beck, Cat and Robbie had walked up to the scene as Mr. Pierce was talking and Jade asked the obvious question, "Shouldn't we support the government with something that's used to defend of our country?"

"Of course we should," Mr Pierce quickly answered, unbuttoning his jacket and resting his hands on his hips. "But what they're doing, manufacturing the phaser themselves, is hurting the national industrial complex that makes this country strong. It's taking jobs away from the private sector which in turn weakens the economy."

As Pierce was talking, Cat had seen something on his belt that alarmed her. She leaned over to Robbie and whispered, "I don't think this is gonna turn out too good. Would you go to the office and ask Vice Principal Dickers to come out here? And have him bring Darryl, too."

"You want Dickers and the school security guard out here for this?" Robbie hushed back. "Why?"

"Just do it. For me?" Cart coyly begged with a beaming smile and batted her eyes at the curly-haired boy.

Robbie immediately fell under her spell, grinned and said, "For you, sure." He quickly hurried off toward the front office as Cat circled around behind Mr. Pierce while he was arguing with Carly, Freddie, Beck and Jade.

Jade fiercely posed, "Are you saying the _entire_ arms industry is going to collapse if you can't make ammunition for the army?"

"No, no No," Mr. Pierce shot back. "But with all of the new legislation being enacted across the country, the industry is already taking a major hit. We've had to lay off some workers because of the different laws being enacted in Connecticut, Colorado and other states. When the military fully moves to laser weapons, we'll have to cut our work force at least by half."

"And that would be a bad thing, why?" Beck countered. "Maybe guns should be outlawed if we're going to have more Columbines and Sandy Hooks in the future." Of course he was referring to two of the most notorious school shootings in U.S. history: Columbine High School in Colorado and the more recent Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

"But the right to keep and bear arms is in the Constitution," James Pierce countered Beck's counter.

"Yeah," Carly snorted out in disgust. "Like that has any bearing nowadays. That amendment was written back in the eighteenth century when a person actually _needed_ a gun to hunt for their nightly meal and protect themselves from the British. I don't think we need to worry about England attacking us anymore and we can always buy our food at the supermarket."

"But every American still needs to be able to protect his home and family from burglars and thieves."

"That's true." Freddie had been waiting for that argument. "But the thieves are probably carrying a gun, too, and those in the know always say to let a thief get away with whatever they want. It's easier to replace a TV set or some jewelry and money than it is to replace a human life."

Jade quickly stepped back in and said, "One of the laws being looked at right now is to limit gun magazines to less than fifteen rounds. Who needs that many round to defend their home? Well, unless a mob of mutant zombies attacks. And that just would be so cool."

"Excuse me, Mr. Pierce?" Cat innocently spoke up from behind the gentleman. She had waited until she saw Vice Principal Dickers and the school security guard, Darryl, coming up the hallway before she made her move.

"Yes Miss?" James Pierce asked as he turned to face the redhead.

"Um. Do you know about California Penal Code 626 point 9 PC?"

"Ah," Pierce wracked his brain for a second before he came up with the answer for such an out-of-left-field question. "Oh yes, the Gun-Free School Zone Act. Yes, I'm familiar with that. Why?"

"Because your in violation of that code," Cat giggled as she pointed to the man's hip. "You're carrying a gun on school property."

"Do you mean this?" Pierce asked, holding open the right front side of his jacket to show her the 9mm hand gun in a holster on his right hip. "I have a concealed weapons permit which makes it okay to carry this gun."

Cat noticed Darryl move up behind the man and said, "But that permit still doesn't allow you to carry one on school grounds." She eyed Darryl, pointed at Mr. Pierce's right hip and simply said, "He has a gun."

It took the tall, uniformed individual a few seconds before Cat's statement registered in his mind. Without thinking, he yanked his Tazer out of its holster, jammed it in Pierce's back and pulled the trigger sending high voltage into the man.

Dickers quickly removed the gun from the holster and emptied the firearm while Darryl handcuffed the man and radioed for the police to be notified.

"You didn't have to shock him," the secretary blurted out in shock at seeing her boss tazed.

"He confronted a student, carrying a loaded concealed gun, without checking in at the office first," Dickers answered the woman, took her by the arm and started to escort her back to the main office. "That makes the both of you a threat to the safety of all of the students here. Now, are you carrying or do I have to frisk you?"

"Caaaaat," Jade warily asked. The dark-haired singer/actress's personality had improved a lot over the month since she'd talked with Carly, but Jade still had a quick temper when riled and her sense of humor was still as dark as ever. "How do you know about that particular penal code?"

"Well, when my brother acts up at home," Cat tentatively explained with a shy smile, "I like to hide in my room and read. And since I'm _in_ school, I thought it'd be okay to learn all the State and Federal rules that apply _to_ school."

"And you specifically remembered California Penal Code six-two-six point nine?" Beck queried the redhead in disbelief.

"Oh yeah," Cat perked up and giggled. "I hate guns so it's nice to know there's a specific rule about having guns on school grounds. That makes us safer." She reached into her cleavage, pulled out a colorful piece of candy and asked, "Does anybody want a gumdrop?"

Xxxxxx

Author's Note: I think I'm going to end this story here. I might arc it at another time in the future but right now I don't know where else it can go from here. I mean sure, I could marry off Carly and Freddie (and Cassie and Spencer) and have them buy a house but that's almost expected in their future in this story.

-30-


End file.
